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THE 
NEW LIGHT ON IMMORTALITY 



THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

NEW YORK • BOSTON • CHICAGO • DALLAS 
ATLANTA • SAN FRANCISCO 

MACMILLAN & CO., Lii-iited 

LONDON • BOMBAY • CALCUTTA 
MELBOURNE 

TKE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, Ltd, 
TOROi>rro 



THE 
NEW LIGHT ON IMMORTALITY 

OR 

The Significance of Psychic Research 



BY 

JOHN HERMAN RANDALL 



Jl3eto gorb 

THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 
1921 

All rights reserve^ 






COPVF.IGPIT, 1921, 

By the MiVCMILLAN COMPANY 



Set up and printed. Published, January, 1921 



M 26 IS2I 



©CI,A605527 



-^l! 



' \ 



rOREWOKD 

WiiEX we remember that every year thirty-one and a half 
millions of hnman beings pass through the experience we call 
death, that every three years a number greater than the entire 
population of the United States leave this world for the 
^^^Great Beyond/' that in the span of a single life of four 
score years, the inconceivable number — two billion four 
hundred million fellow human creatures of the planet earth — 
will have passed from out the reach of time and sense, that 
the one inevitable experience awaiting, sooner or later, every 
individual being, is death — how indeed can any thoughtful 
mind fail to pause and reflect ? 

There is no experience so common and universal as death, 
unless it be birth, and yet how little we know as to its real 
meaning. What question, by comparison, can rank in signifi- 
cance with this supreme question of man's destiny? In its 
essence it has to do with nothing less than the value of a 
human soul. Is the soul nothing, or is it everything ? Is it 
of infinitesimal worth, or is it infinite ? Let this age-old ques- 
tion be answered definitely in the afiirmative and the sociolog- 
ical problem is solved forever. 'No man would willingly or 
consciously grind precious jewels into the dust. If the hu- 
man life is not an immortal soul in evolution, the sooner we 
know it the better. 

If any excuse for another book on the old subject is needed, 
let it be found in the fact that the instinctive cry of the human 
soul for more light on the great mystery is more insistent and 
more general to-day than ever before; and also, that we are 
living in an age that professes to have found new light on the 



vi rOEEWOED 

old problem that its discoverers claim is destined to dispel 
the shadows and fill the whole world with light. Psychic re- 
search is a name to conjure by to-day. Already it has done 
great things, and it promises to do still greater. The demand 
is for certainty. The sonl-hunger for more light is one of the 
striking characteristics of our day. Back of all the natural 
curiosity that impels toward the probing of the old mystery by 
new methods, lies an inarticulate but earnest longing for a 
richer fuller, truer life of the spirit. What might it not 
mean for the world, if man should indeed find the deeper an- 
swer to his spiritual yearnings and aspirations in what pur- 
ports to be ^^ new light " on the old problem ? 

The author is not a psychic researcher, though he has been 
in deepest sympathy with the work being done in this field, 
and has sought to keep in close touch with its results. He 
does not intend to relate any personal experiences he may 
have had with psychic phenomena, nor does he purpose bring- 
ing to the attention of the reader any detailed evidence that 
may have been obtained for the fact of human survival. The 
books that deal with these phases of the subject are numerous 
and can be found by any one. 

What he rather seeks to do in this volume is to appraise the 
work of the researcher, so far as it has gone, not as the sci- 
entific expert might do in an exhaustive or technical manner, 
but as a general student of the subject who realizes that many 
men and women are still in doubt as to just what psychic re- 
search really means, what it is trying to do, and how much has 
already been accomplished. 

Still more particularly does he desire to point out, as 
clearly as possible, the deeper meaning and significance of 
psychic research for this problematic age, with all its con- 
fusion and uncertainty in every domain of life and thought, 
— a phase of the subject that he feels has not yet been suffi- 
ciently stressed or adequately set forth by previous writers. 



FOKEWOED vii 

He desires to acknowledge his indebtedness, especially, to 
the writings of the four researchers to whom he has given 
prominence in this volume, and to the books of Doctor 
Hyslop for the historical matter. 

John" Heemais" Kandali.. 
IS^ew York City, 

September Ist, 1920. 



CONTENTS 



HAPTE 


R 

FOEEWOKD 


PAGE 
V 


I 


The Nature op the Few Light . 


. 1 


II 


Maurice Maeterlinck — the Poet 


. 14 


III 


William James — the Philosopher . 


. 33 


IV 


Sir Oliver Lodge — the Scientist . . 


. 51 


y 


James Hervey Hyslop — the Psychologist 


. 68 


VI 


The Present Status of Psychic Eesearch 


. 85 


VII 


Future Possibilities — And a Warning . 


. 100 


^iii 


The Age and Psychic Eesearch . 


. 118 


IX 


Its Ethical and Social Implications 


. 129 


X 


Its Meaning for Eeligion 


. 140 


XI 


The Eeal Immortality 


. 149 


XII 


The Consciousness of Immortality . 


. 164 



THE NEW LIGHT ON IMMORTALITY 

CHAPTEK I 

THE NATURE OF THE I^EW LIGHT 

"Year after year the researches of science afford us new proof 
that the savage, the barbarian, the idolater, the monk, each and all 
have arrived, by different paths, as near to some one point of eter- 
nal truth as any thinker of the nineteenth century. . . . We have 
reason even to suppose that no dream of the invisible world has 
ever been dreamed, — that no hypothesis of the unseen has ever 
been imagined, — which future science will not prove to have con- 
tained some germ of reality." — Lafcadio Hearn. 

When we speak of the " new light " on immortality to- 
day, we are referring to a very definite and specific class of 
evidence that professes to be scientific and that claims, at 
least in the minds of many, to furnish tangible proof of 
hnman survival after death. It has nothing whatever to 
do with the older or classical arguments for immortality, 
save as these have served to keep alive belief in continued 
existence or may have stimulated interest in the search for 
evidence that would be truly convincing. The familiar argu- 
ments that have come down to us from the past are so numer- 
ous and, to certain minds, so strong, that it is difficult to 
select those that have exerted the greatest influence on the 
human mind. 

These older arguments may, perhaps, best be grouped un- 
der the following general heads : First, what may be termed 
an ethnographic or race argument, based on the universality 



2 THE NEW LIGHT ON IMMOETALITY 

of the belief in an after existence among practically all peo- 
ple and at all epochs of history, even in prehistoric times. 
This is what the old traditional philosopher called ^' the proof 
from universal consent.'^ Second, there is the psychological 
argument, based on man's instinctive aspiration toward the 
ideal, — the ideal of beauty, or of truth, or of goodness. 
But since this ideal never is, and never can be attained in 
this earthly life, therefore there must be another life where 
it can be realized; otherwise man's deepest aspirations are 
but baseless delusions and cruelest mockery. Third, there 
is the metaphysical argument, which has taken many differ- 
ent forms, the most familiar of which is based on the idea 
that while the body is composite and corruptible, the soul 
is simple and hence decomposable — a part or fragment of 
Infinite Being or Universal Substance. Therefore, after 
the terrestrial life is terminated, the soul must continue to 
live on, as nothing that is a part of indestructible Substance 
can ever be lost or destroyed. Fourth, there is the moral 
argument which claims that it is indispensably just that the 
virtuous man should be recompensed for his struggles and 
that the guilty man should be punished. But since this is 
far from being observed in this life, the sense of justice:, the 
thirst for a rigorous and absolute equity, would not be satis- 
fied unless there were a supplement to this life after death. 
And last, there are the familiar arguments from religion. 
Which of these arg-uments carries greatest weight depends, 
of course, upon the mental and moral temper of each indi- 
vidual. 

It is quite evident that no one of these arguments, nor all 
of them taken together, furnish conclusive or final proof of 
life after death. What they do is to make continued exist- 
ence seem reasonable or probable even, the infiuence they 
have varying with the individual who considers them. These 
are the reasons that underlie the beliefs of the vast majority 



THE N'ATURE OF THE ]^EW LIGHT 3 

of human beings in life after death, in so far as any rea- 
sons are recognized. That they have served to bring con- 
viction to many minds in the past cannot be questioned, 
that they have furnished, at least, some degree of comfort 
and hope to countless others must also be admitted. But 
it is equally true to-day that these arguments, taken alone, 
leave multitudes in an attitude of doubt and uncertainty, 
and not a few in a position of frankly confessed unbelief 
in any existence beyond the grave. The reason for this is 
due to the fact that we are living in a scientific age, which 
seeks to base all its conclusions not on conjecture or faith, 
but on facts, just so far as these can be discovered. And 
the demand of such an age, in religion as well as everywhere 
else, is for certainty, not for mere pious conjecture or an 
only imaginary hope. If we are to believe to-day, the de- 
mand is for clear evidence that our beliefs are founded on 
facts, not on delusions. It is this scientific spirit that makes 
imperative and inevitable a new approach to all the old prob- 
lems of life, including those of religion, and that demands 
new grounds upon which a more truly satisfying faith can 
be based. 

This new approach to the old problem of life after death has 
been found in the so-called field of psychic research. The 
workers in this field do not deny the value of the older argu- 
ments, but in their special inquiry they are not concerned with 
them. They do not reason philosophically, or religiously, or 
morally, or from universal instinct, but they profess to argue 
scientifically. The question they ask is, not what have men 
thought and believed and hoped in the past, but what are the 
clear and unmistakable facts as to continued existence after 
death? And they believe that in the realm of psychic phe- 
nomena it is possible for them to discover facts that may have 
a direct bearing on the old problem. Some of them even 
affirm their conviction that they have gone far enough in the 



4 THE 'NEW LIGHT ON IMMOETALITY 

ascertaining of facts to claim confidently that they have al- 
ready discovered the scientific proof of human survival, and 
that eventually all the world will accept the proof. 

Such assertions made by such men, would have been start- 
ling, to say the least, a generation ago ; and no one can deny 
the profound significance and far-reaching implications that 
they may contain for the future. The time is past when in- 
telligent people can brush the evidence of psychic research 
aside as being '^ all bosh," although there are some who still 
hold this view. The research in this field has been carried 
so far and has already disclosed so many significant facts that 
it must be continued, in spite of all hostility, until the truth 
of these facts is finally known. 

A brief survey of the movement known as psychic research 
may not only be of interest to the reader ; it may also help to 
disclose how serious is the purpose and how disinterested are 
the motives lying back of the efforts of the investigators in 
this particular field. 

Psychic phenomena are as old as antiquity. They have 
always been in the world and are found among all people. 
Tylor's ^^ Primitive Culture," Herbert Spencer's works, 
Prazer's "Belief in Immortality among Savages," and many 
similar works, as well as the legends of folk-lore, bear abun- 
dant testimony to the existence of genuine psychic phenomena 
in the earliest times, making all due allowance for magic, 
fraud, hysteria and morbid conditions. Dreams and sorcery 
seem to have been the chief forms of manifestation. The 
Hebrew Scriptures are full of evidence of psychic phenomena, 
and the origin of Christianity was associated with the same 
phenomena to a marked degree. The story of the transfig- 
uration, and the appearance of Moses and Elias on the Mount, 
are only conspicuous instances among many to be found in 
the jSTew Testament. The same thing is true of all religions, 
at least in their earlier stages. Limits of space forbid our 



THE JSTATUEE OF THE NEW LIGHT 5 

tracing the manifestations of psychic phenomena down 
through the centuries, as the books dealing with this phase of 
the subject are easily accessible to all. 

The rise of modern spiritualism is usually associated with 
the Fox sisters of Hydesville, ISTew York, though Professor 
Hyslop regards Swedenborg who died in 1772 as the real 
originator. His phenomena were not physical, but of the 
mental type, consisting of visions with his own interpretations 
of them. The interest in spiritualism after the time of Swe- 
denborg was kept alive by the performance of Mesmer and by 
the investigators who followed him. Mesmer excited gieat 
interest in France and, to a lesser degree, in England. But 
on the whole, at least in so far as public or literary notice is 
concerned, spiritualism made little headway in England until 
after the phenomena of the Fox sisters in America became 
generally known. Curious as it may seem, it was the rap- 
pings of the Fox sisters that created a world-wide interest in 
the facts of psychic phenomena — an interest that soon led to 
the founding of a new religious movement, founded on com- 
munications with the dead, that grew rapidly in numbers both 
in this country and in England. 

It was this new interest in such phenomena, occasioned by 
the rise and growth of the Spiritualist Movement, that finally 
compelled the attention of scientific men. The phenomena 
might possibly have remained unnoticed much longer, had it 
not been for their occurrence in respectable families, and 
sometimes among men and women of marked intelligence and 
training. At last, however, a few men concluded that it was 
the scandal of science that the allegations of centuries had 
not been taken up and investigated. The persistence of the 
phenomena, and of the claims for the super-normal, was a 
perpetual challenge to science* at last this challenge was ac- 
cepted. 

John Addington Symonds states in his letters, with a half 



6 THE NEW LIGHT 01^ IMMORTALITY 

sneer at the folly of it, that Professor Sidgwick of Cam- 
bridge University was investigating mediums as early as 
1867 with the hope of finding evidence of survival after death. 
This date was fifteen years before the organization of the 
Society for Psychical Research. -^^ 

The experiences of the Reverend W. Stainton Moses, who 
had been educated at Oxford University and vv^as for a long 
time a clergyman of the Church of England, were among the 
chief incentives to the formation of the society. These ex- 
periences seemed to be confirmed by other remarkable inci- 
dents among intelligent people, like Lord Brougham, Cotter 
Morrison, Andrew Lang and Sir William Crookes. Stainton 
Moses was persuaded by members of his congregation to inves- 
tigate spiritualism. He found nothing at first, but he finally 
developed automatic writing himself, and became convinced 
by it that the claims of the spiritualist were correct. His 
unquestioned integrity left intelligent people no choice but to 
investigate the matter. He was personally known to Profes- 
sor Sidgwick, Mr. Myers, Edmund Gurney and others of the 
same standing. With his case and others challenging sci- 
ence, the men just named organized, in 1882, the English So- 
ciety for Psychical Research, and obtained at once the co- 
operation of other prominent men. Sir William F. Barrett 
was one of the chief instigators in the matter, as he had long 
been independently interested in the study of the phenomena. 
He became one of the Vice Presidents in the organization, 
Professor Henry Sidgwick being the President. Professor 
Balfour Stewart was also one of the Vice Presidents. With 
them were associated Arthur James Balfour, M.P., Richard 
Hutton, and the Honorable Roden JSToel. The Council of 
the Society was composed of Frederick W. H. Myers, Ed- 
mund Gurney, Frank Podmore, Charles C. Massey, and 
others not so well known in America. These names guar- 
anteed a scientific treatment of the subject. 



THE NATURE OF THE NEW LIGHT 7 

A draft of the purposes of the Society was publislied as a 
circular; tlie objects of study included phenomena purporting 
to represent the influence of ^^ one mind on another, apart 
from any generally recognized mode of perception '' (after- 
ward called telepathy) J hypnotism, clairvoyance, the experi- 
ments of Reichenbach, apparitions, haunted houses, the phys- 
ical phenomena of spiritualism, and the collecting of existing 
materials bearing on the history of these subjects. The pub- 
lications of the Society have consisted of a Journal issued 
monthly, and a volume of " Proceedings " issued annually, 
often in parts distributed throughout the year. 

In 1884, two years after the organization of the English 
Society, an American Society was formed, with Mr. N. D. C. 
Hodges as secretary. Professor Simon Newcomb was its first 
President. Its Vice Presidents were G. Stanley Hall, now 
President of Clark University, Professor George S. EuUerton 
of the University of Pennsylvania, Professor Edward C. 
Pickering of the Harvard College Observatory, Dr. Henry P. 
Bowditch of the Harvard Medical School and Dr. Charles S. 
Minot, also of the Harvard Medical School. The society had 
on its membership list a large number of scientific men. It 
issued annual reports which, in the course of five years, made 
a volume. But in 1887, the interest having somewhat de- 
clined — perhaps because the public did not find the expected 
progi-ess made — the American Society was abandoned and 
reorganized as an American Branch of the English Society. 
Dr. Richard Hodgson of London, England, was elected secre- 
tary and continued in that office until his death in 1905. 
After his death the American Branch was dissolved and the 
new American Society was organized with Dr. James H. 
Hyslop as secretary in May, 1906, which position he con- 
tinued to occupy until his death in 1920. 

There are organizations of some sort in both Erance and 
Italy under the auspices of scientific men, but no details are 



8 THE NEW LIGHT ON" IMMORTALITY 

known to the author. The psychological Institute in Paris 
was founded to include psychical research in its field of 
inquiry. 

As its first work, the American Society undertook experi- 
ments in telepathy or thought transference with some suc- 
cess. In the course of several years of investigation, two 
types of phenomena, with perhaps a third, made something 
like telepathy seem plausihle. These were spontaneous coin- 
cidences between two persons' thought, and experimental co- 
incidences, in which the conditions of the result could be regu- 
lated and the phenomena repeated more or less at will. The 
third type consisted of apparitions. Since these naturally 
suggested the agency of spirits, believers in telepathy were in- 
terested in attempting to prove the adequacy of that process as 
an explanation. 

The Society then began to investigate phantasms or appari- 
tions. The two volumes published on that subject, together 
with the volume entitled, " A Census of Hallucinations,'' an- 
nounced the unanimous conclusion of the Committee that 
these apparitions were not due to chance. The Committee 
regarded this conclusion as proved, regardless of the explana- 
tion, which many assumed to be telepathy. As the census 
was limited to phantasms of the living or of persons at the 
moment of death, the hypothesis had its plausibility. Appa- 
ritions of the dead were not considered in this report. 

The further study of mediumistic phenomena seemed to 
strengthen the case of the spiritualists. Soon after the an- 
nouncement of the conclusions regarding telepathy and appa- 
ritions, the Society discovered Mrs. Piper, through Professor 
William James, who had reported on her phenomena as 
early as 1885. In 188Y Dr. Richard Hodgson became ac- 
quainted with the case. In the course of eighteen years of 
work with Mrs. Piper he, together with some other members 



THE ISTATUEE OF THE NEW LIGHT 9 

of the Society, became convinced of the truth of the spiritistic 
theory. After Mrs. Piper, Mrs. Verrall, Mrs. Holland and 
others exhibited the same type of phenomena. The Ameri- 
can Society has investigated Mrs. Smead, Mrs. Quentin, Mrs. 
Chenoweth and a few others. There seems to be little doubt 
left, v^hatever the explanation, that super-normal information 
has been obtained through them. 

In the meantime other fields of inquiry were opened. The 
English Society unsuccessfully tried to repeat the experi- 
ments of Eeichenbach. Sir William Barrett spent much 
time in investigating dousing, and issued two reports, in 
which he announced the conclusion that the finding of water 
by the divining-rod is possible. Hypnotic phenomena were 
to some extent investigated, particularly with a view to in- 
ducing conditions for proving telepathy. Some remarkable 
experiments were performed by Edmund Gurney. In the 
course of thirty years of work the Society collected an im- 
mense amount of data, which leaves the scientist of to-day no 
excuse for ignoring the claims of psychic phenomena as re- 
vealing a super-no'rmal element in human experience. 

The American Society has been handicapped in its work by 
the need of funds and a laboratory for scientific work, and of 
cooperators in the field. Under the leadership of Dr. Hyslop, 
it has succeeded in raising an endowment of $160,000, for its 
work, but the income from this, together with membership 
fees, guarantees only its publications and the running ex- 
penses of its office. It has made no experiments in telepathy, 
and has had only limited opportunity to investigate sponta- 
neous phenomena. But it has managed to do some good work 
in the mediumistic field, and maintains its Journal and " Pro- 
ceedings " with such material as it can secure from personal 
reports and the experiments with a few psychics. It has not 
yet exercised any such influence over the general public as has 



10 THE NEW LIGHT ON IMMOETALITY 

the English Society. Academic and scientific support, prob- 
ably on account of the avowed spiritistic sjTupathies of its 
secretary, has been weak. 

After calling attention to the above facts, Dr. Hyslop states 
the presents conditions and outlook of the American Society, 
shortly before his death, in the following words : 

" The work of the Society, however, is well established, 
and probably in the future will not be neglected. Enough 
has been accomplished to make scientific neglect of the prob- 
lem inexcusable, although much work remains to be done, to 
overcome the prejudices of our materialistic age. When the 
fact is commonly recognized that psychic research is con- 
cerned not with a metaphysical theory, but with the collection 
of facts which may establish a great truth, the present bias of 
the scientific world will be overcome. The Societies have 
done much to further this progress; and it is probable that 
the immediate future will see the barriers of prejudice broken 
down, with the serious investigation of questions more far 
reaching than those in any field of physical science.'' 

It is through the work of these Societies that the new ap- 
proach to the old problem of life after death has been opened 
up to humanity. For the first time in human history, strange 
as it may seem, these phenomena which have always had their 
place in the life of man are being seriously and honestly in- 
vestigated by trained scientific experts, whose work is becom- 
ing more and more widely known throughout the civilized 
world and whose efforts to find the truth in this particularly 
difficult field are increasingly commanding the respect of in- 
telligent people everywhere. When we remember the unpop- 
ularity of this work, at least in scientific circles generally, the 
absence of any emoluments and the little honor as yet ac- 
corded to the worker in this field, we cannot but be grateful 
to all those, who, in the disinterested love of truth, have de- 
voted time and energy to the investigation of psychic phe- 



THE N-ATURE OF THE JSTEW LIGHT 11 

nomena^ whatever may be tlie final conclusions at which they 
arrive. 

It is not the purpose of the author to tell of the many ex- 
periments that have been made, to describe ^^ experiences/' or 
to detail the evidence that has been obtained by pursuing dif- 
ferent lines of inquiry or following different methods of inves- 
tigation. All this material can be found in the books pub- 
lished by the trained worker in this special field, to which 
class the author does not belong. But he has been a close stu- 
dent of the results of psychic research as thus far obtained, 
and he is tremendously interested in the deep significance 
both of the inquiry and the results, on the life of man and the 
future of human society. It is to this significance that he de- 
sires to call attention, for it is quite evident that in the wide- 
spread interest in psychic investigations to-day and its general 
popularity among all classes, the deeper significance of human 
survival and of immortality may be lost sight of by many. 

As a preparation to the consideration of this deeper signifi- 
cance of the subject, it is desired to make a careful study in 
the next few chapters of four of the outstanding figures in 
this field of research — Maurice Maeterlinck, William 
James, Sir Oliver Lodge and James Hervey Hyslop. These 
particular men are selected, not because they are the only 
voices speaking to-day for psychic research — this is by no 
means true — but rather, because they have come to be bet- 
ter knov/n to the public mind, both by their writings and their 
lectures, than most of the other researchers of note. ' They 
are also selected because their general standing in the world 
of scholarship and of letters, as well as their personal charac- 
ters, give to any opinion they may publicly express a certain 
weight and distinction that is not so generally accorded to all 
opinions. This is not to say that the personal experience of 
the most obscure farmer's wife in the matter of psychic phe- 
nomena may not be just as true and mean as much to her as an 



12 THE NEW LIGHT O:^ IMMOETALITY 

experience that has come to any of these men. But the fact 
is, it would not mean as much to the rest of us, nor would it 
hegin to carry the influence with us that the same experience 
does, when coming from the lips or pen of men whose ability 
we know and respect. 

Another reason for this particular selection is the fact that 
each of these distinguished men approaches the subject from a 
slightly different view-point. As poet, as philosopher, as sci- 
entist and as psychologist, these four men have reacted to 
their investigations in the psychic field according to the pe- 
culiar temperament and mental make-up of each individual. 
In addition, while they are agTced in many things, they arrive 
at different conclusions as we shall see. 

It is not our purpose to give in detail any of the particular 
evidence that has led them to their respective conclusions, or 
to describe the interesting experiences they have each had in 
making their investigations. All this material may readily 
be found in their published books and writings on the subject, 
and it is assumed that the reader is more or less familiar with 
these books. 

What the author desires to do is to describe the man, in 
each instance, in his personal mental and spiritual approach 
to the subject, to give his impressions of the value of psychic 
investigations as bearing on the moral and spiritual life of 
man, and of the possibilities of finding in this field the proof 
for human survival ; and then to set forth, as clearly and con- 
cisely as possible, the actual conclusions to which long years of 
research in this particular field have led each of these investi- 
gators. These men are being quoted and misquoted so widely 
to-day, and by persons who have never taken the trouble to 
read their books, that it seems well worth while to pause and 
inquire just what the actual conclusions of these four re- 
searchers really are. With this end in view, the author has 
sought purposely to give these conclusions, so far as possible, 



THE NATUEE OF THE l^EW LIGHT 13 

in the actual words of the man himself, as taken from his 
published writings. In some cases, where it is impractical 
to quote direct on account of the limits of space, the author has 
tried to paraphrase the writer's thought as accurately as lies 
within his power. 

It is hoped that the deeper significance of the " new light " 
may become more apparent, as we come to realize clearly just 
what its significance has become to these representative minds. 



CHAPTER II 

MAUEICB MAETEKLIIs^CK THE POET 

"Earth does not possess the truth any more than we do. She 
seeks it, as do we, and discovers it no more readily. She seems 
to know no more than we whither she is going or whither she is 
being led by that which leads all things. We must not listen to 
her without inquiry ; and we need not distress ourselves or despair 
because we are not of her opinion. We are not dealing with an 
infallible and unchangeable wisdom, to oppose which in our 
thoughts would be madness. We are actually proving to her that 
it is she who is in fault; that man's reason for existence is loftier 
than that which she provisionally assigned to him; that he is 
already outstripping all that she foresaw; and that she does wrong 
to delay his advance." — Maurice Maeterlinch. 

When the Nobel Prize for Literature was awarded to 
Maurice Maeterlinck, the Belgian writer, in 1911, there was 
a singular feeling of unanimity, both among the literary crit- 
ics and the reading public generally, that the award was well- 
deserved. For thirty years Maeterlinck has been writing 
poems, plays and essays that have been translated into many 
different languages. In all the western countries, his plays 
have been produced, usually with great success. In Russia, 
there were no less than 59 different companies producing 
" The Blue Bird " at one time ; and there is scarcely a town 
or even hamlet throughout the western world where his essays 
are not known and loved. 

The absurd and wholly inaccurate praise with which Mir- 
beau, the French critic, hailed him as the "Belgian Shake- 
speare," on the appearance of his early play, " Princess Ma- 
deleine,'' did not serve to turn the head of the young writer, 

14 



MAUEICE MAETEKLINCK — THE POET 15 

nor did it prevent him from pursuing the even tenor of his 
way in giving expression to the truth and beauty that shone 
for him, in his own inimitable style. It would be far more 
accurate to call him the Belgian Emerson, for there is much 
in common between him and the American transcendent alist, 
of whom he is a profound admirer. 

But despite the wide popularity of his writings, there is a 
sense in which Maeterlinck stands as a somewhat lonely fig- 
ure in this modern age. Eor, in a period of human history 
that is dominated by the objective side of life, he would em- 
phasize the subjective; in an age absorbed by externals, he 
would point the way to the inner life; in an age noisy and 
clamorous with discussions and controversies of every kind, 
he would coromend us to silence ; in an age dedicated to social 
problems, he would have us remember the individual. 

And yet it is the individual, not as an end in himself, but 
as an integral part of a larger Whole, in whom Maeterlinck is 
most interested. He holds no brief for the narrow, self -cen- 
tered and isolated individualism that has held the world in 
bondage from the beginning, and from which mankind is 
striving so strenuously to escape to-day. But he discerns 
most clearly the soul of that higher individualism which 
must forever hold its conscious place in the life of man, if 
society is to make any real progress, when he reminds us that 
" before we do for others, we must learn to do for ourselves ; 
before we give, we must acquire ; before we act, we must learn 
how to be." Maeterlinck stands as one of the modern Proph- 
ets of Democracy, but not in any superficial or conventional 
sense. He has grasped with Emerson and Walt Whitman 
the idea of the democracy of all of life, he sees that the lives 
and energies of all men are equably penetrated by the powers 
of nature, and so he understands that democracy must first 
become an inner thing before it can become externalized in 
society; he knows that it must be an actual experience in 



16 THE NEW LIGHT ON IMMORTALITY 

human consciousness before it can ever bo realized outwardly 
in its fullness. 

Maeterlinck has been called '^ the Poet of the Ndw Mysti- 
cism," and there can be no question but that his writings pro- 
ceed from a profound mystic sense. But in what does his 
mysticism consist ? He has saturated himself in the lives and 
writings of the great mystics of the past, — Marcus Aurelius, 
Plotinus, Jacob Boehme, Novalis, George Eox, and all the 
rest, — and he has studied deeply the mystics of the far East ; 
and yet there is a striking absence in his books of those 
strange accounts of voices and illuminations, of ecstasies and 
inspirations, with which the classic literature of mysticism 
abounds. There is a curious reserve, an entire absence of 
dogmatism, a certain humility in the expression of convic- 
tions, a candid and sincere spirit of unbiassed inquiry, that 
mark him out as the scientist imbued with the scientific spirit, 
as well as the poet imbued with the spirit of mysticism. It 
is an unu-sual combination of gifts; and in Maeterlinck, the 
mystic sense and the scientific spirit seem blended in a rare 
balance. His " Life of the Bee '' is a fine example of a sci- 
entific-poetic treatment of a subject, in which the two ten- 
dencies seem merged into one. 

At bottom, the mysticism of Maeterlinck consists of a re- 
cognition of the supremacy of the inner life ; this involves the 
priority of consciousness and the central place held by the in- 
tuition. This is, essentiall}^, the fundamental basis of all 
mysticism. The chief difference between Maeterlinck and 
the others who voice the new mysticism generally, and the 
mystics of the past, lies in the fact that the modern approach 
■to the study of the inner life is by scientific methods and in 
the scientific spirit. Thus Maeterlinck might be called an 
empirical mystic, in the sense that he seeks to apply empirical 
methods to his investigation of the phenomena of the inner 
life. In the case of Maeterlinck, it is clear that mysticism 



MAUEICE MAETEELINCK — THE POET 17 

has been for him no mere way of escape, — a refuge from the 
negations of science ; rather does it seem to be the fulfillment 
of hints and suggestions and promises made by science, the 
rounding out and completion of the edifice whose foundation 
science has laid. 

We have dwelt thus at length on Maeterlinck's mental and 
spiritual predispositions only to indicate clearly that the 
views of immortality to which he eventually gives expression 
are essentially those of the intuitive poet, who has caught the 
scientific spirit and seeks to employ, so far as possible, em- 
pirical methods in his investigations. 

Maeterlinck's interest in the subject of death and all that 
it involves is evident from the very beginning of his career 
as a writer. In his first volume of poems, published when he 
was only twenty-five, there is clearly felt the brooding sense 
of the mystery of existence, which tends to induce in the 
reader the feelings of hopeless pessimism. As he turns to the 
writing of plays, the mystery of death seems to assume an 
even more prominent place in his thought. In three of his 
earlier plays this is the sole theme. They are one act, no- 
plot pieces,—^' The Intruder," " The Interior," and '' The 
Blind " — scarcely adapted for general public production ; but 
those who have been permitted to witness them upon the 
stage bear eloquent testimony to their tremendous dramatic 
power, even though the action is entirely psychological. 

In each of these plays, death is always " the intruder," — a 
strange, inexplicable Power, forever lurking just beyond the 
threshold, within the shadows, imminent, threatening, relent- 
less, only waiting for the fateful hour when it shall emerge 
from the shadows to become the grim destroyer of joy, of hap- 
piness and of love, — a something terrible, abnormal, hostile 
to life, always the unwelcome Intruder whose presence com- 
pletely bafiles human understanding. In " The Death of 
Tintagilles," the thought of the imminent Intruder has be- 



18 THE Iv^EW LIGHT O^ IMMOETALITY 

come well-nigh an obsession^ which, Maeterlinck confesses, 
led him for a time to indulge in various abnormal and dis- 
torted views of life, whose only meaning seemed to him to be 
obliterated by the presence of the Eternal Intruder. It is 
clear that at this stage Maeterlinck is dominated by the an- 
cient view that death is the enemy and destroyer of life. 

After his marriage to Georgette LeBlanc, with the coming 
of love and its consequent happiness, and also we may assume, 
with the steadily increasing fame and success attendant upon 
his writings, Maeterlinck seems to have passed out of the 
stage where the mystery and imminence of death was the all- 
important fact. His plays assume iwider proportions and 
deal with other themes. It is then that the first volumes of 
his essays begin to appear, — " The Treasure of the Humble,'' 
" Wisdom and Destiny," " The Life of the Bee," " The Bur- 
ied Temple," '^ The Double Garden," etc., in which the 
gentle philosopher, with words of deep moral insight and 
clear spiritual vision, became even more widely known among 
thoughtful readers. 

The old obsession of death as the grim intruder upon life 
now gives way to an absorption in the meaning and possibili- 
ties of life itself. The mystery remains, but it is from hence- 
forth the mystery of life, of which the experience of death is 
only a part and, perhaps, a beneficial part. And it is no 
longer for Maeterlinck a mystery that terrifies ; it may baffle 
him still, but in the very baffling there is a wondrous fascina- 
tion. 

It is now that Maeterlinck turns more definitely toward 
the study of psychic phenomena, not only because of his in- 
terest in the old problem of death, but because he realizes that 
we shall never be able to discover more definite information 
as to what lies beyond death, until -we have learned more of 
the nature and possibilities of the inner self, as it is here and 
now incarnate in the flesh. In the volume of essays, entitled, 



MAURICE MAETEELIIsTCK — THE POET 19 

^' The Unknown Guest," he deals with the phenomena of the 
snh-conscions life, suggesting its significance for the nature 
and powers of the inner self, — the Unknown Guest who 
abides deep within every life. 

In this volume and also in " Our Eternity,'' and in ^' The 
Wrack of the Storm," are to be found his most direct utter- 
ances growing out of his extensive studies in the field of 
psychic phenomena. He has been for years not only a per- 
sonal investigator in this field but he is also thoroughly fa- 
miliar with the work done by others in England, in America 
and on the continent. We must also keep in mind the pe- 
culiar mental and spiritual equipment he brings to these spe- 
cial problems. He is essentially the poet, possessed of strong 
intuitive powers, but also trained in the scientific method and 
imbued with the scientific spirit. In addition, he is the phil- 
osopher seeking for a rational and comprehensive view of the 
meaning of life. As he tells us, from the outset, he has had 
no particular theories to defend and no special prejudices to 
overcome. In all that he has 'written on the subject, one can- 
not fail to be impressed with the candor, the open-mindedness 
and the transparent sincerity of the man. 

To what conclusions have the researches of such a man led ? 
What " new light " has he to throw on the old problem ? 
What is his present attitude toward death and the future 
destiny of man, after all these years of painstaking investi- 
gation ? 

As to the genuineness of the phenomena with which psychic 
research deals, Maeterlinck has no question whatsoever. To 
quote : " The questions of fraud and imposture are naturally 
the first that suggest themselves when we begin the study of 
these phenomena. But the slightest acquaintance with the 
life, habits and proceedings of the three or four leading me- 
diums is enough to remove even the faintest shadow of sus- 
picion. Of all the explanations conceivable^ the one which at- 



20 THE NEW LIGHT ON IMMOETALITY 

tributes every thing to imposture and trickery is unquestion- 
ably the most extraordinary and tbe least probable. . . . 
From the moment tbat one enters upon tbis study, all sus- 
picions are dispelled without leaving a trace behind them ; and 
we are soon convinced that the key to the riddle is not to be 
found in imposture. . . . Less than fifty years ago most of 
the hypnotic phenomena, which are now scientifically classi- 
fied, were likewise looked upon as fraudulent. It seems that 
man is loth to admit that there lie within him many more 
things than he imagined.'' 

But in regard to the interpretation of these facts whose gen- 
uineness Maeterlinck asserts so unquestionably, there is not 
the same positiveness. The crucial problem is whether these 
alleged facts are to be interpreted by telepathy or on some 
spiritualistic hypothesis. It is here that Maeterlinck frankly 
confesses his uncertainty. In a chapter entitled " Communi- 
cations with the Dead," after quoting at length several inter- 
esting experiences vouched for by pro^minent investigators, 
he concludes as follows, '^ What are we to think of all this ? 
Must we, with Myers, Newbold, Hyslop, Hodgson and many 
others who have studied this problem at length, conclude in 
favor of the incontestable agency of forces and intelligences 
returning from the farther bank of the great river which it 
was deemed that none might cross ? Must we acknowledge 
with them that there are cases ever more numerous which 
make it impossible to hesitate any longer between the tele- 
pathic and the spiritualistic theories? I do not think 
so. I have no prejudices, — what were the use of hav- 
ing any, in these mysteries ? — no reluctance to admit 
the survival and the intervention of the dead; but it 
is wise and necessary, before leaving the terrestrial plane, 
to exhaust all the suppositions, all the explanations there 
to be discovered. We have to make our choice between 
two manifestations of the unknown, two miracles, if you 



MAUEICE MAETEKLIi^CK — THE POET 21 

prefer, whereof one is situated in the world which we in- 
habit and the other in a region, which, rightly or wrongly, we 
believe to be separated from iis by nameless spaces which no 
hnman being alive or dead has crossed to this day. ... It is 
natural, therefore, that we should stay in our own world, as 
long as it gives us a foothold, as long as we are not pitilessly 
expelled from it by a series of irresistible and irrefutable 
facts issuing from the adjoining abyss. . . . The survival of 
a spirit is no more improbable than the prodigious faculties 
which we are obliged to attribute to the mediums, if we deny 
them to the dead ; but the existence of the medium, contrary 
to that of the spirit, is unquestionable ; and therefore it is for 
the spirit, or for those who make use of its name, first to prove 
that it exists.'' 

Profoundly as he has been impressed by his investigations 
and significant as he deems them to be as throwing new light 
on the mysterious possibilities of the inner self, still it is clear, 
from the above and from other similar statements that might 
be quoted, that to Maeterlinck all the purported evidence that 
has been gathered thus far, falls short of furnishing the actual 
proof for survival after death. He does not close the door 
against such proof ; he admits frankly that it may yet be forth- 
coming ; and it can safely be assumed that Maeterlinck would 
welcome such convincing proof with joy. But, as yet, for 
him the evidence for the spiritualistic hypothesis is not so 
clear as to constitute conclusive proof. 

This is by no means to say that Maeterlinck is an unbeliever 
or even agnostic on the question of survival; quite the op- 
posite is true. He has a very strong, and as we shall see in a 
moment, a very definite belief in life after death for the indi- 
vidual. But it is for him a belief that has not yet been scien- 
tifically proved, that may, in fact, be incapable of any such 
proof, — a belief that seems to him altogether reasonable be^ 
cause it fits in harmoniously with his general view of the uni- 



22 THE NEW LIGHT ON IMMORTALITY 

verse, and especially, with what he has discovered of the pos- 
sibilities of the mysterio'US " unknown guest '' within each be- 
ing. His belief grows naturally out of his philosophy of life 
and his conception of the soul, and that it has been profoundly 
influenced by his studies in the field of psychic phenomena 
goes without saying. But the thing to be emphasized is, that 
it is a belief of the intuitive and poetic sense in the man, 
rather than evidential proof that has convinced his scientific 
sense. This does not militate against the truth of his belief, 
however, for there are many other truths than merely sci- 
entific truths. That his belief is true for him, we cannot 
doubt, whether it is for others or not. 

In what follows, we desire to paraphrase as clearly as may 
be done the conclusions to which Maeterlinck has come after 
his extensive studies and long pondering on the old problem. 
As he views it, there are five imaginable solutions and no 
more. (1) The Eeligious solutions. (2) Total Annihila- 
tion. (3) Survival with our consciousness of to-day. (4) 
Survival without any sort of consciousness. (5) Survival 
in the Universal Consciousness, or with a consciousness dif- 
ferent from that which we possess in this world. 

(1) The Religious Solutions. 

These, oldest of all solutions, are set aside by Maeterlinck, 
not because they have failed to furnish hope and comfort to 
multitudes in the past, but because they are no longer satis- 
fying to the modern mind. They " occupy a citadel without 
doors or windows into which human reason does not pene- 
trate.'^ Tliey^ affirm, but their afiirmations must be accepted 
on pure faith. If the Christian, for example, seeks a reason 
for his faith in immortality apart from the creeds, he is re- 
duced to establishing the truth of the scriptures by an argu- 
ment drawn from the very scriptures in question and — what 
is more serious — to explain a great and indisputable mys- 



MAURICE MAETEELIISrCK — THE POET 23 

tery by a comparatively small mystery that rests only upon 
^^to-iegeM wKich it is his business to prove. In addition, the 
testimony of the scriptures to immortality is tremendously 
weakened to-day for the reason that the Christian belief is 
inseparably bound up with traditional creeds and older views 
of the scriptures, which are themselves either crumbling or 
have, for many intelligent persons, practically disappeared in 
"the presence of modern scholarship. Thus the older theo- 
logical argument fails to satisfy to-day. 

(2) Annihilaiion, 

To Maeterlinck, total annihilation is impossible. " We are 
the prisoners of an infinity without outlet, wherein nothing 
perishes, wherein everything is dispersed but nothing lost. 
N^either a body nor a thought can drop out of the universe, 
out of time and space. Not an atom of our flesh, not a quiver 
of our nerves will go where they will cease to be, for there is 
no place where anything ceases to be. . . . To be able to do 
away with a thing, to fling it into nothingness, nothingness 
would have to exist; and if it exists, under whatever form, 
it is no longer nothingness. . . . All that dies falls into life ; 
and all that is born is of the same age as that which dies. If 
death carried us to nothingness, did birth then draw us out 
of that same nothingness ? Why should the second be more 
impossible than the first? The higher human thought rises 
and the wider it expands, the less comprehensible do nothing- 
ness and death become. In any case, if nothingness were 
possible, since it could not be anything whatever, it could not 
be dreadful.'' If the religious solution no longer satisfies, 
the theory of total annihilation is, to Maeterlinck, utterly 
unthinkable. 

(3) Survival with our C onsciousiiess of To-day. 

This is nearly as impossible and incomprehensible as total 



24 THE NEW LIGHT ON IMMOETALITT 

annihilation, according to Maeterlinck's view. This is based 
apparently on his own feelings as to what is most reasonable, 
and also in part, on the triviality of the communications that 
purport to come from the dead. As to this last, he asks: 
" Why do they thus restrict themselves? Why do they jeal- 
ously hug the narrow strip of territory which memory occu- 
pies on the confines of both worlds and from which none but 
indecisive or questionable evidence can reach us ? Are there 
then no other outlets, no other horizon ? Why do they tarry 
round us, stagnant in their little pasts, when in their freedom 
from the flesh they ought to be able to wander at ease over 
the virgin stretches of space and time? Why do they come 
back with empty hands and empty words ? Is that what one 
finds when one is steeped in infinity ? Beyond our last hour 
is it all bare and shapeless and dim? Of what use is it to 
die if all life's trivialities continue? " ^ 

How much force this argument, drawn from the nature of 
many of the communications received, may have, is open to 
question, for there are many other alleged communications 
which, while not answering all our questions, are nevertheless 
far from dealing merely in trivialities. With more reason 
Maeterlinck continues : 

" This is certain that when^ the body disappears all^hys^ical^ 
sufferings will disappear at the same time. With them will 
vanish simultaneously all that we call mental or moral^suf^ 
ferings, seeing that air"oT'"them, if we examine them well, 
spring from the ties and habits of our senses. Our spirit 
feels the reaction of the sufferings of our body or of the 
bodies that surround it; it cannot suffer in itself or through 
itself. Slighted affection, shattered love, disappointments, 
failures, despair, betrayal, personal humiliations, as well as 
the sorrows and the loss of those whom it loves, acquire their 
potent sting only by passing through the body which it ani- 
mates. ... It is possible that it still grieves over the troubles 



MAUEICE MAETEELmCK — THE POET 25 

of those whom it has left behind on earth. But to its eyes, 
since it no longer reckons the days, these troubles will seem 
so brief that it will not grasp their duration; and knowing 
what they are and whither they will lead, it will not behold 
their severity. The spirit is insensible to all that is not hap- 
piness. It is made only for infinite joy, which is the joy of 
knowing and understanding. It can grieve only at perceiv- 
ing its own limits; but to perceive those limits, when there 
are no more bonds to space and time, is already to transcend 
them.'' 

Thus, Maeterlinck would argue, that since death means 
the transcending of the old limits, that which survives death 
must also transcend the old consciousness that developed under 
the limitations of the body. It is inconceivable that the 
consciousness within the physical body, should remain the 
same unimpaired and limited thing, when that body has been 
cast aside. The " great experience " of death must involve 
changes in consciousness in the direction of expansion and 
enlarged understanding that must, in turn, involve profound 
significance for the individual. 

^^ Thus,'' he concludes, " this theory of retaining a full 
and unimpaired consciousness has very little likelihood and 
is not greatly to be desired, although with the surrender of 
the body, the source of all our ills, it seems less to be feared 
than our actual existence. On the other hand, as soon as 
we attempt to extend or exalt it, so that it may appear less 
barbarous or less crude, we are driven back to a theory of a 
cosmic consciousness, or some sort of modified consciousness." 
But first let us consider. 

(4) Survival ivithout any sort of Consciousness. 

This seems at first sight more probable either than anni- 
hilation or survival with a different sort of consciousness. 
But practically, from the view-point of the good or ill await- 



26 THE NEW LIGHT ON IMMOETALITY 

ing us on the other side of the grave, it amounts to the same 
thing as annihilation. It is undoubtedly the easiest solution. 
" The body disintegrates and can no longer suffer ; the mind, 
separated from the source of pleasure and pain, is extin- 
guished, scattered and lost in a boundless darkness ; and what 
comes is the great peace so often prayed for, the sleep 
without measure, without dreams and without awaken- 
ing." 

" But," argues Maeterlinck, ^^ this is only a solution that 
fosters indolence. If we press those who speak of survival 
without consciousness, we perceive that they mean only their 
present consciousness, for man conceives no other; and we 
have seen that it is almost impossible for that manner of 
consciousness to persist in infinity." This brings us to the 
last possible solution, which is evidently Maeterlinck's best 
thought on the problem, up to date. 

(5) Survival with a Modified Consciousness. 

Maeterlinck makes it clear that in the depths of our 
thought, limited on every side, we shall never be able to form 
the least idea of an infinite consciousness. And yet it is im- 
possible for us to separate the idea of intelligence from the 
idea of consciousness. Any intelligence that is not capable 
of transforming itself into consciousness becomes for us a 
mysterious phenomenon which we may label with names as 
meaningless as they are mysterious. 

" Now, on this little earth of ours, which is but a dot in 
space, we see expended in every scale of life, as for instance, 
in the wonderful combinations and organisms of the insect 
world, a mass of intelligence so vast that our human intelli- 
gence cannot even dream of assessing it. Everything that 
exists — and man first of all — is incessantly drawing upon 
that inexhaustible reserve. We are therefore irresistibly 
driven to ask ourselves if that cosmic intelligence is not the 



MAUEICE MAETERLINCK — THE POET 27 

emanation of an infinite conscionsness^ or if it must not, 
sooner or later, elaborate one ? " 

Survival, absolutely without consciousness, would tbere- 
fore be possible only if we deny the existence of a cosmic 
consciousness. When once we admit this consciousness, un- 
der whatsoever form, we are bound to share in it, if we sur- 
vive at all. 

" Here begins the open sea. Here begins the splendid ad- 
venture, the only one abreast with human curiosity, the only 
one that soars as high as its highest longing. Let us accustom 
ourselves to regard death as a form of life which we do not 
as yet understand ; let us learn to look upon it with the same 
eye that looks upon birth; and soon our mind will be ac- 
companied to the steps of the tomb with the same glad ex- 
pectation that greets a birth." 

^^ Since we have been able to acquire our present con- 
sciousness, why should it be impossible for us to acquire an- 
other? Eor that ego which is so dear to us and which we 
believe ourselves to possess was not made in a day; it is not 
at present what it was at birth. Much more chance than 
purpose has entered into it ; and much more alien substa,nce 
than any inborn substance which it contained. It is but a 
long series of acquisitions and transformations, of which we 
do not become aware until the awakening of our memory.'' 

At the very outset, Maeterlinck's view of a modified or 
progressing consciousness springs from his fundamental con- 
ception of the universe and his view of infinity. To him, in- 
finity is not a moveless and immovable thing, from all eternity 
perfect and at its zenith. He does not believe that at death 
the illusion of movement and progress which we see from the 
depths of this life 'will suddenly fade away. In that case it 
would be inevitable that at our last breath, we should be ab- 
sorbed in what, for lack of a better term, we call the cosmic 
consciousness. He believes rather that death will reveal to 



28 THE I^EW LIGHT ON IMMORTALITY 

us that the illusion lies not in our senses but in onr reason, 
and that, in a world incontestably alive, despite the eternity 
preceding our birth, all the experiments have not been made, 
that is to say, that movement and evolution continue and will 
never and nowhere stop. Thus he feels obliged to accept 
the theory of a modified consciousness. 

He further tells us, however, that ^^ the theorj^ of a modi- 
fied consciousness does not necessita^te the loss of the tiny 
consciousness acquired in our body; but it makes it almost 
negligible, flings, drowns and dissolves it in infinity. ... If 
the new environment which we enter on leaving our mother's 
womb transforms us to such a point that there is, so to speak, 
no connection between the embryo that we were, and the man 
that we have become, is it not right to think that the far 
newer, stranger, wider and richer environment which we 
enter on quitting life will transform us even more? We 
can see in what happens to us here a figure of what awaits us 
elsewhere, and can readily admit that our spiritual being, 
liberated from its body, if it does not mingle at the first onset 
with the infinite, will develop itself there gradually, will 
choose itself a substance, and, no longer trammeled by space 
and time, will go on forever growing. It is very possible 
that our loftiest wishes of to-day will become the law of our 
future development. It is very possible that our best 
thoughts will welcome us on the farther shore, and that the 
quality of our intellect will determine that of the infinite 
which crystallizes around it. . . . Whatever be the force that 
survives us and presides over our existence in the other world, 
this existence, to presume the worst, could be no less great, 
no less happy than that of to-day. It will have no other 
career than infinity; and infinity is nothing if it be not 
felicity. In any case, it seems fairly certain that we spend 
in this world the only narrow, grudging, obscure and sorrow- 
ful moments of our destiny.''' 



MAURICE MAETEELmCK — THE POET 29 

In anO'tlier passage, he asks the question : " Will our ego, 
our soul, our spirit, or whatever we call that which will sur- 
vive us in order to continue us as we are, will it find again 
on leaving the body, the innumerable lives which it must have 
lived since the thousands of years that had no beginning? 
Will it continue to increase by assimilating all that it meets 
in infinity during the thousands of years that will have no 
end ? Will it linger for a time around our earth, leading, in 
regions invisible to our eyes, an even higher and happier 
existence, as the theosophists and spiritualists contend ? Will 
it move toward other planetary systems, will it emigrate to 
other worlds, whose existence is not even suspected by our 
senses ? Everything seems permissible in this great dream, 
save that which might arrest its flight." 

And once again : ^^ If we admit that our ego does not re- 
main eternally what it was at the moment of our death, we 
can no longer imagine that, at a given second, it stops, ceases 
to expand and rise, attains its perfection and its fullness, to 
become no more than a sort of motionless wreck suspended 
in eternity, and a finished thing in the midst of that which 
will never finish. That would indeed be the only real 
death. ... In a word, either we believe that our evolution 
will one day stop, implying thereby an incomprehensible end 
and a sort of inconceivable death ; or we admit that it has no 
limit, whereupon, being infinite, it assumes all the properties 
of infinity, and must needs be lost in infinity and united with 
it. This, withal, is the latter end of theosophy, and all the 
religions in which man, in his ultimate happiness, is absorbed 
by God. And this again is an incomprehensible end, but at 
least it is life. . . . Behold us then before the mystery of 
the cosmic consciousness. If this consciousness exist under 
the form which we have conceived, it is evident that we shall 
be there and take part in it. If there be a consciousness 
somewhere, or something that takes the place of conscious- 



30 THE NEW LIGHT ON IMMORTALITY 

ness, we shall be in tliat consciousness or in that thing, be- 
cause we cannot be elsewhere. And as this consciousness or 
this thing cannot be unhappy because it is impossible that 
infinity should exist for its own unhappiness, neither shall 
we be unhappy when we are in it. Lastly, if the infinity 
into which we shall be projected have no sort of consciousness, 
nor anything that stands for it, the reason will be that con- 
sciousness or anything that might replace it, is not indis- 
pensable to eternal happiness." 

Maeterlinck gives us his conclusion to the whole matter in 
these words : ^^ This I think is about as much as we may 
be permitted to declare, for the moment, to the spirit anx- 
iously facing the unfathomable spaces, wherein death will 
shortly hurl it. It can still hope to find there the fulfillment 
of its dreams ; it will perhaps find less to dread than it feared. 
. . . I have added nothing to what was already known. I 
have simply tried to separate what may be true from that 
which is assuredly not true. . . . Many things beyond a 
doubt, remain to be said. . . . But we need have no hope that 
any one will utter on this earth the word that shall put an 
end to our uncertainties. It is very probable, on the con- 
trary, that no one in this world nor in the next, will discover 
the great secret of the universe. And if we reflect upon this 
even for a moment, it is most fortunate that it should be so. 
We have not only to resign ourselves to living in the incom- 
prehensible, but to rejoice that we cannot go out of it. If 
there were no more insoluble questions nor impenetrable 
riddles, infinity would not be infinite; and then we should 
have forever to curse the fate that placed us in a universe 
proportionate to our intelligence. . . . The Unknown and 
the unknowable are necessary and will, perhaps, always be 
necessary to our happiness." 

If we have interpreted him correctly, these are the con- 
clusions at which Maurice Maeterlinck arrives, after many 



MAURICE MAETERLmCK — THE POET 31 

years of study and reflection, of groping and searching for 
more light. It is evident that they are the views of the 
poet in whom the intuitive sense is strong and active, rather 
than of the scientist, controlled alone by the evidence of his 
senses. His studies in the field of psychic phenomena have 
not brought to him, as they have to others, the proof that 
the dead do return. That question for him is still an open 
question, for which the proof may eventually be forthcom- 
ing, or it may not. 

What his studies and reflections have brought him, ap- 
parently, is the clear conviction — to him based upon in- 
contestable proof — that there is in man a something that 
survives the body — a soul, a spirit, a self, call it what you 
will — a something that death does not destroy in the dis- 
solution of the body. He has been profoundly impressed by 
the mysterious powers and hitherto unguessed possibilities of 
'' the unknown guest," who dwells within each individual. 
To him it has been proved that this mysterious self can and 
does function, independently of the senses, while still in the 
body; and so he finds no difiiculty in believing that it will 
continue to function after it has left the body. It should be 
clearly noted that the ^^ proof " which Maeterlinck accepts, 
has to do with the possibility of survival, not with the return 
of the dead. Psychic Pesearch has convinced him of the 
first, but has left him still in doubt as to the second. 

What does this mean for his general attitude toward both 
life and death ? The old obsession of death as the grim 
^^ intruder,'' which haunted his waking hours and breathes 
through all of his earlier writings, has vanished. He still 
confronts the old mystery of human existence, grown even 
more mysterious with the passing of the years, but it is no 
longer a mystery surcharged with horror and dread, but one 
suggesting beneficent change, the larger growth and eternal 
expansion. In fact the source of the mystery has been trans- 



32 THE NEW LIGHT ON IMMOETALITY 

feiTed from death to life. Whereas, formerly, death had 
been the imminent, even threatening power with its fatal 
influence on life, now he sees that the mystery lies in life 
itself — the eternal existence — in which death has become 
the inevitably necessary and inexpressibly desired experience, 
in the further evolution of the soul-life in man. 
f\ In the first act of '' The Blue Bird,'' the fairy Berylune 
sends Mytyl and Tyltyl forth in the search for happiness. 
Shepherded and protected by Light, they explore the Past 
and the Euture, the Palace of Night, the Kingdoms of the 
Dead and of the Unborn. At last they find themselves in a 
( grave-yard ; and Mytyl grows fearful at her first contact with 
the great mystery of Death. Yet the gTave-yard with its 
wooden crosses and grass-covered mounds is moonlit and 
tranquil ; and of a sudden, as the revealing diamond is turned 
in Tyltyl's fingers, even the tombstones and ^^ all the grand 
investiture of death " disappear, to be replaced by luxuriant, 
swaying clusters of Madonna lilies. 

" Where are the dead ? '' asks Mytyl, in amazement, search- 
ing in the grass for traces of even one tombstone. 

Her brother also looks, and after a breathless moment, 

" There are no dead," is his calm and confident reply. 

This line, " There are no dead,'' in " The Blue Bird," 
marks the progress of Maeterlinck's thought on the old prob- 
lem since the days when he wrote ^^ The Intruder." Eor him 
it contains the truth, though it is the discovery of the poet 
in him rather than the scientist. Whether it is the truth for 
\ us depends on wheher we have approached life from Maeter- 
linck's view-point. 



CHAPTEK III 

WILLIAM JAMES THE PHILOSOPHEK 

" Psychic phenomena form indeed a special branch of education, 
in which experts are only gradually becoming developed. The 
phenomena are as massive and wide-spread as is anything in 
Nature, and the study of them is as tedious, repellent and undig- 
nified. To reject it for its unromantic character is like rejecting 
bacteriology because bacterium termo lives in putrefaction. Scien- 
tific men have long ago ceased to think of the dignity of the 
materials they work in." — William James. 

If Maurice Maeterlinck's interpretation of the old prob- 
lem is essentially that of the poet in whom the scientific spirit 
is more or less fully developed^ the interpretation given us 
by William James is essentially that of the philosopher, en- 
thusiastically devoted to the experimental method. 

The high place held by William James in the field of 
American scholarship is one of peculiar interest. His un- 
questioned moral integrity, his genial personality, his orig- 
inal methods as a teacher, his constructive contributions to 
the progress of thought and, especially, his disinterested and 
catholic spirit that pervaded all he said and did, have left 
an indelible impression on his age and endeared him to thou- 
sands of thoughtful minds, both in this country and through- 
out Europe. The students, fortunate enough to have been 
in his classes, fairly idolized him; while many who have 
never known him personally owe him a profound debt of 
gratitude for the light and inspiration received through his 
writings. 

A graduate of the University of Geneva as Doctor of 

33 



34 THE NEW LIGHT OE" IMMORTALITY 

Medicine, he became, first. Instructor in Physiology in Har- 
vard Medical School, then Professor of Psychology in Har- 
vard College, and later on, was transferred to a Professor- 
ship in Philosophy in the same institution, which position 
he held up to the time of his death, in the summer of 1910. 
Thus, his entire active life was identified with Harvard Uni- 
versity to which his steadily growing fame and widening 
influence brought gTeat luster. 

As a trained doctor of Medicine, as a psychologist whose 
classic work on the subject, together with numerous other 
miscellaneous articles, have revolutionized the psychological 
ideas of the last generation, as an original thinker who is 
known as one of the foremost exponents in America of the 
philosophy of pragmatism, and also of the principle of plural- 
ism, possessed of a brain wonderfully organized and well- 
balanced, with sympathies as broad as life and unswerving 
in his loyalty to empirical methods, it can readily be seen 
that William James was peculiarly endowed by nature for 
the study of any complex problem, and especially qualified 
for conducting investigations through the torturous labyrinth 
of psychic phenomena. 

In an essay on " Louis Agassiz," he once wrote the fol- 
lowing words : '' While his scientific ideals were an in- 
tegral part of his being, something that he never forgot or 
laid aside ... he was at the same time so commanding a 
presence, so curious and inquiring, so responsive and ex- 
pansive, and so generous and reckless of himself and his own, 
that every one said immediately, ^ Here is no musty sa-vant, 
but a man, a great man, a man on the heroic scale, not to 
serve whom is avarice and sin.' '' These words, written of 
another, can indeed be taken as giving us an accurate picture 
of William James himself. 

He was the born non-conformist. He cared as little for 
the orthodoxy of science, as such, as for the orthodoxy of 



WILLIAM JAMES — THE PHILOSOPHER. 35 

religion. He was by nature the explorer, the innovator, the 
experimenter. He loved to walk in the " forbidden terri- 
tory '' of science and of religion, and was apparently un- 
influenced by the conventional limitations and social squeam- 
ishness of his confreres. As he used to say, there was a 
something in him that was forever impelling him to search 
for the one " white crow,'' which alone would be sufficient 
to disprove the commonly accepted proposition, that " All 
crows are black." As a matter of fact, there was a peculiar 
fascination for him in the " unpopular view," that had been 
outlawed by the conventionally accepted opinions of current 
science and philosophy. He had a profound sympathy with 
Shakespeare's famous lines, 

" There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, 
Than are dreamt of in your philosophy," 

and he was forever seeking those truths yet undreamed of in 
modem tendencies of thought. 

It was this spirit in James, unquestionably, that awakened 
in him so deep an interest in the subject of immortality at a 
time when both science and philosophy were inclined to re- 
gard the whole matter as taboo. And, still later, it was the 
same courageous interest in a field, looked at askance by 
orthodox scholars, that made him so enthusiastic a member 
of the American Society for Psychical Research, and that led 
him at length to become a personal investigator in psychic 
phenomena. 

That James was severely criticized for his work in this 
field, even by some of his best friends, is well known, and 
in the opinion of many scholars of the inore conservative type, 
his professional standing suffered considerably; but none of 
this criticism served to deter him in his investigations. He 
tells us of once inviting eight of his scientific colleagues to 
come to his house and sit with a medium for whom the evi- 



36 THE NEW LIGHT ON IMMOETALITY 

dencej published in the ^' Proceedings," was most noteworthy. 
All but three declined the adventure. He then begged the 
" Commission/' connected with the Chair of a certain learned 
psychologist in a neighboring university, to examine the 
same medium. They also asked to be excused from any such 
entanglement. To his credit, it must be said, that it was 
during the decidedly '' unpopular " stage of psychic inquiry 
that William James did his fearless work in this field. He 
tells us that this narrow and intolerant spirit was due to 
" the temper of our times, a temper which, thanks to Ered- 
erick Myers " — and, we may safely add, William James — 
" will certainly be impossible after this generation." 

His wide acquaintance with the work of Janet and Binet 
in this particular field, and his warm personal friendship 
with Erederick Myers and Richard Hodgson, secretaries re- 
spectively of the English and American Societies for Psychi- 
cal Pesearch, for whose disinterested skill he had the great- 
est admiration, as well as his personal investigations carried 
on with Mrs. Piper and other well-known mediums — all 
contributed immensely to make effective his natural qualifi- 
cations for this difficult kind of work. 

But before proceeding to consider the results of his studies 
in the field of psychic phenomena, let lis review briefly his 
original contribution to the problem of immortality, as con- 
tained in the IngersoU Lecture for 1897-1898, delivered at 
Harvard University under the title, ^' Human Immortality." 
In the early part of the lecture he frankly disclaims any 
special interest in the hereafter, which only gives to what 
follows an even greater significance. To quote, 

" Immortality is one of the great spiritual needs of man. 
The Churches have constituted themselves the official guard- 
ians of the need, with the result that some of them actually 
pretend to accord or to withhold it from the individual by 
their conventional sacraments — withhold it at least in the 



WILLIAM JAMES — THE PHILOSOPHER 37 

only shape in whicli it can be an object of desire. . . . The 
whole subject of immortal life has its prime roots in personal 
feeling. I have to confess that my awn personal feeling 
about immortality has never been of the keenest order, and 
that, among the problems that give my mind solicitude, this 
one does not take the very foremost place. Yet there are 
individuals with a real passion for the matter, men and 
women for whom a life hereafter is a, pungent craving, and 
the thought of it an obsession ; and in whom the keenness of 
interest has bred an insight into the relations of the subject 
that no one less penetrated with the mystery of it, can attain. 
Some of these people are known to me. They are not offi- 
cial personages ; they do not speak as the scribes, but as having 
direct authority." 

He then proceeds to set forth at length what he calls the 
^^ transmission " theory of cerebral action. He reminds us 
of the great difficulty to the old faith in immortality that is 
supposed to be raised by modern physiological psychology — 
a difficulty that relates to the seeming absolute dependence 
of our spiritual life, as we know it here, upon the brain. 
How can we believe in life hereafter when Science has once 
for all attained to proving that our inner life is a function 
of the so-called '^ gray matter '' of our cerebral convolutions ? 
How can the function possibly persist after its organ has 
undergone decay? 

James affirms that, in this lecture, he wants to be under- 
stood as subscribing to the great psycho-physiological for- 
mula: Thought is a function of the brain. The question 
then is, does this doctrine logically compel us to disbelieve in 
immortality? The majority of modern psychologists would 
doubtless answer ^' Yes,'' but James affirms his belief that it 
has in strict logic no such deterrent power ; ^' that even though 
our soul's life, as here below it is revealed to us, may be in 
literal strictness the function of a brain that perishes, yet it 



38 THE NEW LIGHT ON IMMOHTALITY 

is not at all impo-ssible, but on the contrary quite possible, that 
the life may still continue when the brain itself is dead.'' 

In explanation of this somewhat paradoxical statement, 
he points out that the supposed impossibility of its continu- 
ance comes from too superficial a view of the admitted fact 
of functional dependence. The moment we inquire more 
clearly and ask ourselves how many kinds of functional de- 
pendence there may be, we immediately perceive that there 
is one kind, at least, that does not exclude a life hereafter at 
all. '^ The fatal conclusion of the physiologist flows from 
his assuming off-hand another kind of functional dependence 
and treating it as the only imaginable kind." 

When the ordinary scientist pronounces the phrase: 
Thought is a function of the brain, he uses the words in the 
same sense as he would say, " Steam is a function of the 
tea-kettle," " Light is a function of the electric circuit," or 
" Power is the function of the moving waterfall." In these 
latter cases, the several material objects have the function of 
inwardly creating or engendering their effects, and their func- 
tion is clearly a productive function. Just so, the psycho- 
physiologist thinks it must be with the brain. Since it 
creates consciousness in its interior, much as it engenders 
cholesterin, and creatin and carbonic acid, its relation to the 
soul's life must also be that of productive function. Then, 
of course, when the organ perishes, since the production can 
no longer continue, the soul must likewise die. 

But James proceeds to explain that in the world of nature, 
productive function of this sort is not the only kind of func- 
tion with w^hich we are familiar. We have there also, re- 
leasing or permissive function; and we also find a trans- 
missive function. " The trigger of a cross-bow has a re^- 
leasing function; it removes the obstacle holding the string 
and lets the bow fly back to its original shape. So, when 
the hammer falls upon a detonating compound. In the case 



WILLIAM JAMES — THE PHILOSOPHER 39 

of a colored glass, however, a prism or a refracting lens, we 
have transmissive function. The energy of light, no matter 
how produced, is by the glass sifted or limited in color, and 
by the lens or prism determined to a certain path and shape. 
Similarly the keys of an organ have only a transmissive 
function. They open successively the various pipes and let 
the wind in the air chest escape in various ways. But the 
air is not engendered in the organ; it is only set free or 
^transmitted through various pipes. . . . My thesis now is 
this : that when we think of the law, that thought is a func- 
tion of the brain, we are not required to think of productive 
function only ; we are entitled also to consider permissive or 
transmissive function. And this, the ordinary psychologist 
leaves out of account. 

" Suppose, for example, that the whole universe of ma- 
terial things should turn out to be a mere surface-veil of 
phenomena, hiding and keeping back the world of genuine 
realities — a supposition foreign neither to common sense 
or to philosophy. Suppose, moreover, that the veil, opaquo 
enough at all times to the full super-solar blaze, could at 
certain times and places, grow less so, and let certain beams 
pierce through into this sublunary world. These beams 
would be so many finite rays, so to speak, of consciousness, 
and they would vary in quantity and quality as the opacity 
varied in degree. Only at particular times and places would 
it seem that as a matter of fact, the veil of nature can grow 
thin and rupturable enough for such effects to occur. But in 
those places gleams, however finite and unsatisfying, of the 
absolute life of the universe, are from time to time vouch- 
safed. Glows of feeling, glimpses of insight and streams of 
knowledge and perception float into our finite world. 

" Admit now, that our brains are such thin and half- 
transparent places in the veil, what will happen ? Why, as 
the white radiance comes through, with all sorts of staining 



40 THE NEW LIGHT O^ IMMORTALITY 

and distortion imprinted on it by the glass, or as the air now 
comes through my glottis, determined and limited in its 
force and quality of its vibrations by the peculiarities of 
those vocal chords which form its gate of egress and shape 
it into my personal voice, even so, the genuine matter of 
reality, the life of souls as it is in its fullness, will break 
through our several brains into this world in all sorts of 
restricted forms, and with all the imperfections and queer- 
nesses that characterize our finite individualities here be- 
low. 

•^ You see that, on all these suppositions, our soul's life as 
we here know it, would nonetheless in literal strictness be the 
function of the brain. The brain would be the independent 
variable, the mind would vary dependently on it. But such 
dependence on the brain for this natural life would in no- 
wise make immortal life impossible." His final conclusion 
follows : 

" In strict logic then, the fangs of cerebralistic materialism 
are drawn. My words ought consequently already to exert 
a releasing function on your hopes. You may believe hence- 
forth, whether you care to profit by the permission or not." 

James disclaims any knowledge as to how the process of 
transmission is carried on, but he calls attention to several 
phases of the theory which seem to him to give it superiority 
over the more familiar theory. Consciousness in this process 
does not have to be generated de novo in a vast number of 
places. It exists already, behind the scenes, coeval with 
the world. This theory also puts itself in touch with the 
conception of a " threshold,'' a word which, since Eechner 
wrote, has played a prominent part in the so-called new 
psychology. It also helps to explain a whole class of experi- 
ences, coming under the head of psychic phenomena, which 
the production theory does not explain, e. g. religious con- 
versions, answers to prayer, instantaneous healings, premoni- 



WILLIAM JAMES — THE PHILOSOPHER 41 

tions, apparitions at time of death, clairvoyant visions and 
the v^hole range of mediumistic phenomena, to say nothing 
of still more exceptionahle and incomprehensible things. 
James closes his argument by quoting Kant, in support of 
his theory, where he says: " The death of the body may 
indeed be the end of the sensational use of our mind, but 
only the beginning of the intellectual use. This body wo'uld 
thus be, not the cause of our thinking, but merely a condition 
restrictive thereof, and although essential to our sensuous 
and animal consciousness, it may be regarded as an impeder 
of our pure spiritual life." It may be of interest to the 
reader to note that Mr. F. C. S. Schiller of Oxford, in his 
well known book, '^ Piddles of the Sphinx," has defended this 
transmission theory at some length. 

As we trace James's experiences as an investigator in the 
field of psychic phenomena for more than a quarter of a 
century, and note carefully all that he has put into his writ- 
ings on the subject, the impression is gained that he wavers 
in his judgment as to the real significance of these phenomena, 
whose genuineness he no more doubts than does Maeterlinck. 
There are times when he seems clearly convinced that the 
facts are all to be explained psychically, and then again, he 
implies, and even says deliberately, that possibly the 
" spirits " may have something to do with it. This hesi- 
tancy to commit himself unequivocally, on the part of a man 
like James, is most significant. It indicates the disinter- 
ested, unprejudiced, sincere and fearless searcher after truth. 
.Nothing more clearly reveals the truly scientific spirit in 
the study of these phenomena than his many articles, pub- 
lished in the ^' Proceedings " and elsewhere, during the last 
twenty years of his life. 

In 18 — he wrote an essay entitled " Psychic Phenomena," 
published in his volume, ^' The Will to Believe and other 
Essays," in which he reveals not only his interest in the 



42 THE ISTEW LIGHT O:^ IMMORTALITY 

subject, but states emphatically that, in his judgment, this 
neglected field of science should be investigated in the simple 
interests of truth. Erom this time on he is recognized as 
one of the best known psychic researchers in this country. 
Some time later he reports a series of sittings for the '^ Pro- 
ceedings " as follows: 

" When I first undertook to collate this series of sittings 
and make the present report, I supposed that my verdict 
would be determined by pure logic. Certain minute inci- 
dents, I thought, ought to make for spirit-return or against 
it in a crucial way. But watching my mind work as it goes 
over the data, convinces me that exact logic plays only a 
preparatory part in shaping our conclusions here; and that 
the decisive vote, if there be one, has to be cast by what I 
may call one's general sense of dramatic probability, which 
sense ebbs and flaws from one hypothesis to another — it does 
so in the present writer at least — in a rather illogical man- 
ner. If one sticks to the details one may draw an anti- 
spiritist conclusion; if one thinks more of what the whole 
mass may signify, one may well incline to spiritist inter- 
pretations." At the end of the above article, he sums up his 
conclusions as follows : 

" I myself feel as if an external will to communicate were 
probably there, that is, I find myself doubting, in consequence 
of my whole acquaintance with that sphere of phenomena, 
that Mrs. Piper's dream-life, even equipped with telepathic 
powers, accounts for all the results found. But if asked 
whether the will to communicate be Hodgson's or some mere 
spirit counterfeit of Hodgson, I remain uncertain and await 
more facts, facts which may not point clearly to a conclusion 
for fifty or a hundred years." 

In view of the many contradictory statements that have 
been made publicly since James's death, as to whether he 
did or did not believe in spirit-return, and as to just what 



WILLIAM JAMES — THE PHILOSOPHER 43 

final conclusions his experiences as a psychic researclier had 
led him, it is exceedingly fortunate that we have from his 
pen a clear and explicit statement of his position, which was 
published in the American Magazine for October, 1909. In 
a more complete and somewhat less popular form, it ap- 
peared in the " Proceedings " for the same year. It is now 
published in his volume, " Memories and Studies,'' under the 
title, '' Final Impressions of a Psychical Pesearcher.'' Wil- 
liam James died in August, 1910, so that this, indeed final, 
statement appeared in print less than a year before his death. 
That he might have changed his opinions during the inter- 
vening months, is of course possible, but if he did so, no 
authenticated statement of such a change has as yet appeared. 
So that we seem to be justified in accepting this final public 
statement as giving us the actual and final conclusions to 
which his mind had arrived. AH who are interested in the 
position of William James, as he defined it himself, should 
certainly read this essay, for its frank candor, its clear state- 
ment and its fair and impartial spirit. 

At the very beginning of the essay he makes the following 
unequivocal confession : " Eor twenty-five years I have been 
in touch with the literature of psychical research, and have 
had acquaintance with numerous ^ researchers.' I have also 
spent a good many hours (though far fewer than I ought to 
have spent) in witnessing, or trying to witness, phenomena. 
Yet I am theoretically no ^ further ' than I was at the be- 
ginning ; and I confess that at times I have been tempted to 
believe that the Creator has eternally intended this depart- 
ment of nature to remain baffling, to prompt our curiosities, 
and hopes and suspicions, all in equal measure, so that, al- 
though ghosts and clairvoyances and raps and messages from 
spirits are always seeming to exist, and can never be fully 
explained away, they also can never be susceptible of full 
corroboration. 



44 THE NEW LIGHT O^ IMMOHTALITY 

" The peculiarity of the case is just that there are so many 
sources of possible deception in most of the observations, that 
the whole lot of them may be worthless, and yet, that in 
comparatively few cases can aught more fatal than this vague 
general possibility of error be pleaded against the record. 
Science meanwhile needs something more than bare possi- 
bilities to build upon ; so your genuinely scientific inquirer — 
I don't mean your ' ignoramus ' scientist — has to remain 
unsatisfied. It is hard to believe, however, that the Creator 
has really put any big array of phenomena into the world 
merely to defy and mock our scientific tendencies; so my 
deeper belief is that we psychical researchers have been too 
precipitate with our hopes, and that we must expect to mark 
progress not by quarter-centuries, but by half- or whole cen- 
turies." 

James then proceeds, as he says, " to put my own state of 
mind upon record publicly,'' as to the definite conclusions to 
which his extended investigations have led him. 

'^ I wish to go on record for the commonness of these 
phenomena. I began this article by confessing myself baf- 
fled. I am bafiled as to spirit-return, and as to many other 
special problems. I am also constantly bafiled as to what to 
think of this or that particular story, for the sources of 
error in any one observation are seldom fully knowable. 
But weak sticks make strong faggots, and when the stories 
fall into consistent sorts that point each in a definite direc- 
tion, one gets a sense of being in the presence of genuinely 
natural types of phenomena. As to there being such real 
natural types of phenomena, ignored by orthodox science, I 
am not baffled at all, for I aan fully convinced of it. 

'^ One cannot get demonstrable proof here. One has to 
follow one's personal sense, which of course, is liable to 
err, of the dramatic probabilities of nature. . . . Our critics 
here obey their sense of dramatic probability as much as we 



WILLIAM JAMES — THE PHILOSOPHER 45 

do. Take ' raps/ for example, and the whole business of 
objeets moving without contact. ^ I^ature/ thinks the scien- 
tific man, ^ is not so unutterably silly. The cabinet, the 
darkness, the tying, suggested a sort of human rat-hole life 
exclusively,' and so ' swindling ' is for him the dramatically 
sufiicient explanation. It probably is, in an indefinite ma- 
jority of cases; yet it is to me dramatically improbable 
that the siwindling should not have accreted round some 
originally genuine nucleus. If we look at human imposture 
as a historic phenomenon, we find it always imitative. The 
original swindler in any line imitated some one who was 
honest. . . . This being the dramatically probable human 
w^ay, I think differently of the whole type, taken collectively, 
from the way in which I may think of the single instance. 
I find myself believing that there is ' something in ' these 
never ending reports of physical phenomena, although I 
haven't yet the least positive notion of the ^ something.' It 
becomes to my mind simply a very worthy problem for in- 
vestigation. 

'' The first automatic writing I ever saw was forty years 
ago. I unhesitatingly thought of it as deceit, although it 
contained vague elements of super-normal knowledge. Since 
then I have come to see in automatic (writing one example of 
a human activity as vast as it is enigmatic. Every sort of 
person is liable to it, or to something equivalent to it; and 
whoever encourages it in himself finds himself personating 
some one else, either signing what he writes by a fictitious 
name, or spelling out by ouija board or table-tips, messages 
from the departed. Our sub-conscious region seems, as a 
rule, to be dominated by a crazy will ' to make believe,' or 
by some curious external force impelling us to personation. 
The first difference between the physical researcher and the 
inexpert person is that the former recognizes the common- 
ness and typicality of the phenomena here, while the latter, 



46 THE NEW LIGHT ON IMMOETALITY 

less informed, thinks it so rare as to be unwortliy of atten- 
tion. 

^' In the second place, I wish to go on record for the 
presence, in the midst of all the hnmhng, of really super- 
normal knowledge. By this I mean, knowledge that cannot 
be traced to the ordinary sources of information — the senses, 
namely, of the automatist. In really strong mediums this 
knowledge seems to be abundant, though it is usually spotty, 
capricious and unconnected. What is one to think of this 
curious phenomenon in human nature? My own dramatic 
sense tends instinctively to picture the situation as an inter- 
action between slumbering faculties in the automatist' s mind 
and a cosmic environment of other consciousness of some sort, 
which is able to work upon them. . . . This, I say, is the 
dramatic view which my mind spontaneously takes, and it 
has the advantage of falling into line with ancient human 
traditions. 

" The views of others are just as dramatic, for the phenom- 
enon is actuated hy will of some sort anyhow^ and wills give 
rise to dramas. The spiritist view, as held by Hyslop and 
Hodgson, sees ' sl will to communicate,' struggling through 
inconceivable layers of obstruction in the conditions. I have 
heard Hodgson liken the difficulties to those of two persons 
who on earth should have only dead-drunk servants to use as 
their messengers. The orthodox scientist, for his part, sees 
^ a will to deceive,' watching its chance in all of us, and able, 
possibly, to use ^ telepathy in its service.' " Then follows 
his own general conclusion, which to the writer's best knowl- 
edge, is the last authoritative opinion from James on this 
subject. 

^^ Which kind of will, and how many kinds of will are 
most inherently probable? Who can say with certainty? 
The only certainty is that the phenomena are enormously 
complex, especially if one includes in them such intellectual 



WILLIAM JAMES — THE PHILOSOPHER 47 

flights of mediumsliip as Swedenborg's, and if one tries in 
any way to work the physical phenomena in. That is why I, 
personally, am as yet neither a convinced believer in parisitic 
demons, nor a spiritist, nor an ^ orthodox scientist,' but still 
remain a psychical researcher, waiting for more facts before 
concluding. 

" Out of my experience one fixed conclusion dogmatically 
emerges, and that is this, that we with our lives are like 
islands in the sea, or like trees in the forest. The maple and 
the pine may whisper to each other with their leaves, and 
Conanicut and Newport hear each other's fog-horns. But 
the trees also commingle their roots in the darkness under- 
ground, and the islands also hang together through the 
ocean's bottom. Just so there is a continuum of cosmic con- 
sciousness, against which our individuality builds but acci- 
dental fences, and into which our several minds plunge as 
into a mother-sea or reservoir. Our ^ normal ' consciousness 
is circumscribed for adaptation to our external earthly en- 
vironment, but the fence is weak in spots, and fitful influ- 
ences from beyond leak in, showing the otherwise unverifi- 
able common connection. ]^ot only psychic research, but 
metaphysical philosophy and speculative biology are led in 
their own ways to look with favor on some such ^ panpsychic ' 
view of the universe as this. Assuming this common reser- 
voir of consciousness to exist, this bank upon which we all 
draw, and in which so many of earth's memories must in 
some way be stored — or mediums would not get at them as 
they do — the questions at once arise : What is its own 
structure? What is its inner topography? What are the 
conditions of individuation in this mother-sea? Are indi- 
vidual spirits constituted there? How numerous and of 
how many hierarchic orders may these then be? How per- 
manent ? How transient ? What, again, are the relations 
between the cosmic consciousness and matter? Are there 



48 THE NEW LIGHT ON IMMORTALITY 

subtler forms of matter which upon occasion may enter into 
functional connection with the individuations in the psychic 
sea, and then, and then only, show themselves ? — So that 
our ordinary human experience, on its material as well as on 
its mental side, would appear to be only an extract from the 
larger psycho-physical world ? 

^' Vast indeed, and difficult is the inquirer's prospect here, 
and the most significant data for his purpose will probably 
be just these dingy little mediumistic facts which the Hux- 
leyan minds of our time find so unworthy of their attention. 
But when was not the science of the future stirred to its con- 
quering activities by the little rebellious exceptions to the 
science of the present? Hardly, as yet, has the surface of 
the facts called ^ psychic ' begun to be scratched for scien- 
tific purposes. It is through following these facts, I am per- 
suaded, that the greatest scientific conquests of the coming 
generation will be achieved." 

If this last essay on the subject did indeed express James's 
final conclusions, before he himself encountered the great 
mystery of death — and nve have no reason to think otherwise 
— then he too, like Maeterlinck, failed to find the scientific 
proof of survival after death. At the end, he was still the 
searcher, not yet the convinced believer. There can be no 
question, however, but that his studies in this field tre- 
mendously influenced his whole attitude toward the problem. 
From being comparatively uninterested in the subject, as he 
tells us himself, he became one of the most interested work- 
ers in tliis field of inquiry ; he braved criticism and dared the 
loss of professional standing for the sake of his desire to get 
at the truth, amid all the humbug. If his earlier hopes were 
disappointed, it is evident that he firmly believed that eventu- 
ally it would be possible to arrive at the truth, and that 
some day the actual proof of immortality might even be 
forthcoming. In the meantime, in spite of physiological 



WILLIAM JAMES — THE PHILOSOPHER 49 

psychology and philosophical materialism, he maintained 
with all possible emphasis, that man has a right to believe that 
death does not end all, without sacrificing his scientific in- 
tegrity. 

It is in his pragmatic view of life that James stresses most 
clearly man's inalienable right to his belief in immortality, 
even in the absence of any proof as yet. Among other things, 
pragmatism means the evolutionary principle applied to 
knowledge as well as to organisms. Just as the claws of 
the tiger and the tusks of the elephant were developed to 
meet the practical needs of these creatures in the struggle for 
existence, so all of our so-called knowledge has been gradu- 
ally built up to serve our needs as human beings. This 
knowledge of which we boast is in no sense final or absolute. 
It is all relative to human needs, human purposes, human 
aspirations. All our modern scientific knowledge is only 
relative, never absolute. 

jSTow, according to this pragmatic view, in all metaphysical 
questions where we have no positive proof one way or the 
other, we have the right to believe what we will. Immor- 
tality has never yet been disproved by any positive scientific 
knowledge. Therefore we have the right to believe in the 
life after death, provided this belief serves our deepest needs 
as human beings — furnishes courage and strength for life's 
duties, inspires us to more unselfish service to our fellows 
here and now, or awakens in us nobler aspirations. 

The pragmatism of William James differed from that of 
Henri Bergson, at least in this respect. Bergson believes 
that our intellectual knowledge is wrong, while James held 
that it was right, as far as it went, but that it was inadequate 
to solve all problems, especially those of man's spiritual 
nature. And where it failed to find the solution, James con- 
tended for the right of faith, of intuition, of belief. It is 
this pragmatic view of life with its courageous attitude to- 



50 THE NEW LIGHT O:^ IMMORTALITY 

ward the future, its daring to believe, even in the presence 
of the seemingly insoluble mystery, just because the belief 
yields the best and the highest to the life of human beings, 
that has made the writings of William James the source of 
such rich inspiration to so many men and women. 



CHAPTEE IV 

SIR OiLIVEIl LODGE THE SCIENTIST 

"Nor let us imagine that existence hereafter, removed from 
these atoms of matter which now both confuse and manifest it, 
will be something so wholly remote and different as to be un- 
imaginable; but let us learn by the testimony of experience — 
either our own or that of others — that those who have been, still 
are; that they care for us and help us; that they, too, are 
progressing and learning and working and hoping; that there are 
grades of existence, stretching upward and upward through all 
eternity; and that God Himself, through His agents and messen- 
gers, is continually striving and working and planning, so as to 
bring this creation of His through its preparatory labor and pain, 
and lead it on to an existence higher and better than anything we 
have ever known." — Sir Oliver Lodge. 

Since the publication of " Eajmond, or Life and Death/' 
in 1916/ Sir Oliver Lodge has stood forth as the supreme 
protagonist of survival after death. The Neiv York Evening 
Post spoke of " Raymond " as '^ one of the most remarkable 
books brought forward by the war.'' It has run through 
many successive editions, and has probably been as widely 
read as any one book in this particular field. Sir Oliver 
Lodge's lecture trip through the leading cities of the United 
States, the winter of 1919-1920, only served to enhance his 
steadily growing fame in this country. It is extremely doubt- 
ful whether any other living man could have drawn such 
large and intelligent audiences to listen to the subjects pre- 
sented. So eminently successful were these lectures, at least 
as regarded from the view-point of the Lecture Bureau, that 
it is already announced that Sir Oliver Lodge is to return 

51 



52 THE NEW LIGHT O:^ IMMOETALITY 

next winter for furttier lectures on the same or similar sub- 
jects. //- 

The wide-spread popular interest in these lectures was 
due, in part, to the subjects considered, but still more to 
the standing and reputation of the man himself. It is no 
exaggeration to say that Sir Oliver Lodge is one of the great- 
est and best known scientists in the world to-dav. His work 
for the past forty years has won for him a place among the 
foremost mathematicians and physicists in England. Eor 
many years he has been the successful President of the Col- 
lege of Birmingham, England, from which position he has 
but recently retired. Like William James, he has dared to 
face the intellectual intolerance and social squeamishness of 
many contemporary scientists in his disinterested search for 
truth, and there is no question but that he has lost in pro- 
fessional standing, in certain quarters, through his deep in- 
terest in psychic phenomena. 

If Maeterlinck approaches the subject essentially from the 
view-point of the poet, and James from that of the philo- 
sopher. Lodge's approach is, in general, that of the scientist 
whose chief interest hitherto has lain in the field of physics. 
But Lodge is more than the mere conventional scientist; he 
is also, to a large degree, the philosopher; and this, not in 
the sense that he is a system-maker, but rather, that in addi- 
tion to the analytic mind of the scientist, he is possessed also 
of marked synthetic powers. Having discovered what he 
deems to be the facts in his special branch of science, he is 
not content to leave it there but is always seeking to ascertain 
the bearing of those facts on the sum total of human knowl- 
edge. It is the more comprehensive view of the philosopher, 
not the merely fragmentary view of the scientist, for which 
he is ever striving. 

In what might be called his " Apologia," he reminds us of 
the limitatioiis of science as such ; ^^ Meantime th^ attitude 



SIE OLIVEE LODGE — THE SCIENTIST 63 

of scientific men is perfectly intelligible and not unreasonable, 
except wben they forget their self-imposed limitations and 
cultivate a baseless negative pbilosopby. People wbo study 
mechanism of course find mechanics, and if the mechanism 
is physiological, they find physics and chemistry as well ; but 
they are not thereby compelled to deny the existence of every- 
thing else. They need not philosophize at all, though they 
should be able to realize their philosophical position when it 
is pointed out to them. The business of science is to trace 
out the mode of action of the laws of physics and chemistry, 
everywhere and under all circumstances. . . . But scientific 
workers are sometimes thought to be philosophizing seriously 
when they should be understood as really only expressing the 
natural scope of their special subject." 

1^0 scientist could be more clearly conscious of the limita- 
tions of science as we know it to-day than is Lodge; and 
therefore, he realizes the inevitable tendency of the scientific 
specialist to rest content with mere fragmentary conceptions 
of truth. Eor this reason he is always pleading the necessity 
of a philosophy, based on the accepted facts of science, that 
shall give to man a comprehensive and satisfying view of 
truth in its totality. He also sees that science, as the body 
of ascertained knowledge, must be a constantly growing and 
expanding thing, for the simple reason that all the truth has 
as yet by no means been ascertained. So, like James, he 
has felt the strong impulsion, as a scientist, to push out into 
territories which science has never yet explored, for the 
sake of discovering the truth now hidden in theory, conjec- 
ture, blind belief or even superstition. Thus he could write : 

" Some of us, whether wisely or unwisely, now want to 
enlarge the recognized scope of physical science, so as gradu- 
ally to take a wider purview and include more of the totality 
of things. That was what the Society for Psychical Eesearch 
was established for • — to begin extending the range of scien- 



54 THE NEW LIGHT ON IMMOETALITY 

tific law and order, by patient exploration in a comparatively 
new region. The effort has been resented and, at first, ridi- 
culed, only because misunderstood. The effort may be a,mbi- 
tious, but it is perfectly legitimate; and if it fails, it fails." 

That his entrance into this field of exploration was bitterly 
resented by many of his confreres, and that he has been, and 
still is, severely criticized by many scientific scholars is well- 
known; and yet it is to be remembered that in 1913, his 
colleagues elected him to the office of President of the British 
Association for the Advancement of Science, the foremost 
scientific organization in the world, thus testifying to the fact 
that, in the opinion of the members of this distinguished 
body, his work in the field of psychic research had not alto- 
gether destroyed his scientific standing. 

It must also be borne in mind that Sir Oliver Lodge, the 
scientist, is profoundly religious by nature, though he is in 
no sense the conventional religionist. He sees clearly — 
no one more so — how much of the older, traditional theology 
has become obsolete under the influence of modem science, 
and he realizes how lacking in vitality and sincerity is the 
professed faith of the churches to-day. No scientist as such 
has done more than Lodge, through his writings, to rouse the 
leaders of religion to the imperative necessity of translating 
their faith into terms of modern life and thought, if organ- 
ized religion is to remain as a potent influence in society. 

In his little book, entitled, " The Substance of Faith,'' 
he has given us his religious credo, as a modern scientist. 
While its contents would be far from satisfactory to the con- 
servative theologian, and quite unacceptable if not entirely 
meaningless to the great mass of conventionally trained Chris- 
tians, nevertheless it has been a tremendous help to countless 
men and women, groping for more light in the dark wood of 
doubt, and it reveals the author as possessed unquestionably 
of a strong and vital, although unorthodox, religious faith. 



SIE OLIYEE LODGE — THE SCIEI^TIST 55 

To the popular mind generally the impression prevails that 
Sir Oliver Lodge was led to his belief in survival after death 
solely through his investigations of psychic phenomena. In 
a sense this is true — the sense that he found his '^ proof " of 
survival in psychic phenomena. But in a deeper sense it is 
true that he was led to his investigations in this field through 
his general view of life and the universe to which his earlier 
studies had led him. Lor it must be frankly admitted that 
in his conception of the universe and of life, Sir Oliver 
Lodge stands squarely opposed to the " orthodox science " 
of to-day. 

It may be doubted whether materialism as a philosophy, 
at least in its older forms, exists any longer, in the sense of 
being sustained by serious philosophers ; but the fact remains 
that, under the form of naturalism in philosophy and mechan- 
ism in psychology, a practical materialism is dominant to-day 
in many quarters. In the Hihhert Journal for July, 1916, 
an able writer states thus the main propositions of scientific 
materialism : 

(1) The Law of Universal Causation. 

(2) The Principle of Mechanism, i. e. the denial of pur- 
pose in the universe, and all notions of finalism or teleology. 

(3) The denial that there exists any form of " spiritual " 
or " mental " entity that cannot be expressed in terms of 
matter and motion. 

Rightly or wrongly — it is not our intention in this con- 
nection to pass judgment — Sir Oliver Lodge replies to this 
statement as follows: 

'^Proposition (1) is common property; materialistic 
thought has no sort of exclusive right over it; and to claim 
propositions (2) and (3) as corollaries from it is farcical. 
All that need be said about proposition (2) is that a broad 
denial always needs more knowledge than a specific assertion, 
and it is astonishing that any sane person can imagine him- 



56 THE NEW LIGHT OIT IMMORTALITY 

self to know enough about the universe as a whole to be able 
to complacently deny the existence of any ^ purpose ' in it. 
All he can really mean is that scientific explanations must be 
framed so as to exhibit the immediate means whereby results 
in nature are accomplished; for whether, or in what sense, 
they are first, or simultaneously conceived in a mind — as 
human undertakings are — is a matter beyond our scientific 
ken. . . . Our experience is that every event has a proximate 
cause which 'we can investigate. Of ultimate causes, we as 
scientific men are ignorant ; they belong to a different region 
of inquiry. If the word ^ denial,' therefore, is replaced by 
the phrase ^ exclusion from practical scientific attention,' 
I for one have no quarrel with clause (2) ; for it then be- 
comes a mere self-denying ordinance, a convenient limitation 
of scope. It represents Policy, not Philosophy. 

'^ But attention may be more usefully directed to the ex- 
travagantly gratuitous guess involved in proposition (3). 
Certain phenomena have been reduced to matter and motion 
— heat, for instance, and sound, the phenomena of gases and 
liquids, and all the complexities of astronomy. . . . And ever 
since Newton, it has been the aim of physics to explain 
everything in its domain in terms of pure dynamics. The 
attempt has been only partially successful; the Ether is re- 
calcitrant. . . . But I cheerfully admit that in some modi- 
fied and expanded form, dynamical theory in mathematical 
physics has proved itself to be supreme. 

^' But does dominance of that kind give to that splendid 
science the right to make a gigantic extrapolation and sprawl 
all over the rest of the universe, throwing out tentacles even 
into regions which it has definitely abstracted from its at- 
tention ? There is not a physicist who thinks so. The only 
people who try to think so are a few enthusiasts of a more 
speculative habit of thought, who are annoyed with the 
physicists, from Lord Kelvin down, for not agreeing with 



SIE OLIVEE LODGE — THE SCIENTIST 57 

them. And being nnable toi gather from competent author- 
ity any specific instance in which dynamics has explained 
a single fact in the region of either life or mind or con- 
sciousness or emotion or purpose or 'will — because it is 
known perfectly well that dynamical jurisdiction does not 
extend into these regions — these speculators set up as au- 
thorities on their own account and, on the strength of their 
own expectation, propound the broad and sweeping dogma 
that nothing in the universe exists which is not fully ex- 
pressible in terms of matter and motion. And then having 
accustomed themselves to the sound of some such collocation 
of words, they call upon humanity to shut its eyes to any 
facts of common experience which render such an assertion 
ridiculous." 

Regardless of which school of thought may be right, it is 
clear from the above that Sir Oliver Lodge does not belong 
to the mechanistic or materialistic schools of modern opinion. 
He believes in mind as well as in matter. He regards the 
universe as being essentially spiritual, though manifesting 
itself through the material; he sees behind the visible, the 
invisible. He believes that in man there is " something 
more " than the physical body. He is not afraid to speak 
of the soul. 

In his view, then, life and mind and consciousness do not 
belong to the material realm; whatever they are in them- 
selves, they are manifestly something quite distinct from 
matter and energy, and yet they utilize the material and 
dominate it. " Matter is arranged and moved by means of 
energy but often at the behest of life and mind. Mind does 
not itself exert force, nor does it enter into the scheme of 
physics, and yet it indirectly brings about results that other- 
wise would not have happened. It definitely causes move- 
ments and arrangements, or constructions of a purposed char- 
acter. A bird grows a feather, and a bird builds a nest; I 



58 THE LTEW LIGHT O]^ IMMORTALITY 

doubt if there is less design in the one case than in the other. 
How life achieves guidance, how even it accomplishes the 
movements, is a mystery, but that it does accomplish them is 
a commonplace of observation. From the motion of a finger 
to the construction of an aeroplane, there is but a succession 
of steps. From the growth of a weed to the flight of an 
eagle — from a yeast granule at one end, to the human body 
at the other — the organizing power of life over matter is 
conspicuous. Who can doubt the supremacy of the spiritual 
over the material ? It is a fact which, illustrated by trivial 
instances, may be pressed to the most portentous conclusion." 

In his well-known book, " The Ether of Space," Lodge 
elaborates the thesis from a purely physical point of view, 
that though intangible and elusive, the Ether is a universal, 
all-pervading substance, far more substantial indeed than 
matter, which, according to Lodge, turns out to be a rare 
and filmy insertion in, or modification of, the Ether of space ; 
and a diiferent set of sense organs might make the Ether 
eclipse matter, in availability and usefulness. He suggests 
that there may be etherial bodies, i. e. bodies constructed of 
the Ether, which of course, would have no chance of appeal- 
ing to our senses; they would not be apparent to us; they 
would therefore not be what we ordinarily call bodies; at 
any rate they would not be material bodies. And yet they 
might fulfill the real meaning of the term, " body," as a 
means of manifestation of a mind or life. 

" Matter forms an instrument, a means of manifestation, 
but it need not be the only one possible. We have utilized 
matter to build up this beautiful bodily mechanism, but 
when that is done with, the constructive ability remains; and 
it can be expected to exercise its organizing powers in other 
than a material environment." 

It is true that Lodge's theory of the Ether is not accepted 
by many of the orthodox scientists as being proved, and there 



SIB OLIVER LODGE — THE SCIENTIST 59 

are perliaps very few of thein who would follow him in his 
speculations as to the meaning of the Ether, or who would 
consent to his hypotheses as to its function in the universe. 
He himself confesses fraukly that it is indeed speculation, 
but to him it appears to be a reasonable line of speculation 
and his hypotheses explain for him what is otherwise inex- 
plicable. It is not for us to pass upon the reasonableness 
either of his hypotheses or his speculations regarding the 
Ether. What we desire to emphasize is that his " tendency '' 
to a belief in immortality and his later interest in psychic 
phenomena grow naturally out of his conception of a ^' spir- 
itual " universe, in which life and mind are distinct entities 
which cannot be construed in terms of matter and motion. 

To sum up his general view: Life must be considered 
sui generis; it is not a form of energy nor can it be ex- 
pressed in terms of anything else. But although life is not 
energy, any more than it is matter, yet it directs energy and 
thereby controls arrangements of matter. Death, on the 
other hand, is the cessation of that controlling influence over 
matter and energy, so that thereafter the uncontrolled activi- 
ties of physical and chemical forces supervene. Death there- 
fore may be called a dissociation, a dissolution, a separation 
of a controlling entity from a physico-chemical organism. 
Death is not extinction. I^either the body nor the soul is 
extinguished or put out of existence. The body weighs just 
as much as before ; the only properties it loses at the moment 
of death are potential properties. " So also, all that we can 
assert concerning the vital principle is that it no longer ani- 
mates that material organism ; we cannot safely make further 
assertion regarding it, or maintain its activity or inactivity 
without further information.'' 

This is as far as his science and philosophy had led him 
up to this time. While it is the opposite of materialism and 
the widely prevalent mechanistic theory, it furnished him no 



60 THE NEW LIGHT ON IMMORTALITY 

scientific " proof " whatever of survival after death. But 
it did make it easy and natural for him to become an active 
member of the Society for Psychical Research and to carry 
on personal investigations, with ever increasing interest, in 
this new field. 

In 1913, the year he was elected President of the British 
Association for the Advancement of Science, Sir Oliver 
Lodge took as the subject of his inaugural address, " Con- 
tinuity.^' In the course of this address, which was later 
scattered broadcast throughout the civilized world, he 
said : 

" Science is incompetent to make comprehensive denials 
about anything. It should not deal in negatives. Denial is 
no more infallible than assertion. There are cheap and easy 
kinds of skepticism, just as there are cheap and easy kinds 
of dogTQatism. . . . Consciousness and will are realities of 
which we are directly aware, just as directly as we are of 
motion or of force. The plain man does not understand the 
process of seeing, he does not realize that it is a method of 
etherial telegraphy; but he sees and hears and touches and 
wills and thinks and is conscious. This is not an appeal to 
the mob as against the philosopher; it is an appeal to the 
experience of untold ages as against the studies of a genera- 
tion. . . . 

" The physical mechanism whereby existence entrenches 
itself is manifest, or at least has been to a large extent dis- 
covered, but it is my duty to remind you and myself, as 
scientists, that our studies do not exhaust the universe, and 
that if we dogmatize in a negative direction and say that we 
can reduce anything to physics and chemistry, we gibbet our- 
selves as ludicrously narrow pedants, and are falling far 
short of the richness and fullness of our human birthright. 
Plow far preferable is the reverent attitude of the Eastern 
poet : 



SIE OLIYEE LODGE — THE SCIENTIST 61 

"The world with eyes bent upon Thy feet stands in awe with all 
its silent stars." 

" Either we are immortal beings or we are not. We may 
not know our destiny but we must have a destiny of some 
sort. Science may not be able to reveal human destiny, but 
it certainly should not obscure it. I am one of those who 
think that the methods of Science are not so limited in their 
scope as has been thought; that they can be applied much 
more widely, and that the Psychic region can be studied and 
brought under law too." 

And then he concludes this memorable address with these 
significant words : " For myself and my co-workers, I must 
risk annoying some of you, not only by leaving on record our 
conviction that occurrences now regarded as occult can be 
examined and reduced to order by the methods of science, 
carefully and persistently applied, but by going further and 
saying with the utmost brevity that already the facts so ex- 
amined have convinced me that memory and affection are 
not limited to that association with matter by which alone 
they can manifest themselves here and now, and that person- 
ality persists beyond bodily death. The evidence — nothing 
new or sensational, but cumulative — to my mind goes to 
prove that discamate intelligence, under certain conditions, 
may interact with us on the material side, and that gradu- 
ally we may hope to attain some understanding of the nature 
of a larger existence and of the conditions regulating inter- 
course across the chasm." 

]^o words from any scientist could be less evasive or more 
positive. Spoken by such a man and on such an occasion, it 
is no wonder that they created a world-wide sensation. To 
the many already pre-disposed to a belief in immortality, 
this clear and definite statement from a scientist of such 
repute, came as the corroboration of all their inmost hopes 
and desires; to many who had been made agnostic by the 



62 THE NEW LIGHT ON IMMOETALITY 

general attitude of modern science, it served to reawaken old 
hopes that, perhaps after all, death did not end all ; 'while by 
the orthodox scientist of the materialistic tendency, there was 
expressed the regret that ^^ another good scientist had gone 
wrong," and since snch did not have the experience with 
psychic phenomena to enable them to combat Lodge's state- 
ments scientifically, they contented themselves by saying that 
Lodge was a physicist, not a psychologist, and that psychic 
phenomena was a field that only the trained psychologist was 
fitted to investigate. 

Then came the war and, among millions of others, the 
death of Sir Oliver Lodge's son, Raymond. The experiences 
that followed have been so fully recorded by the father in 
the book entitled ^' Raymond,'^ and the book itself has been 
so widely read, it is not necessary in this connection to give 
more than the final conclusions to which these experiences 
have brought Sir Oliver Lo'dge. Here is his general sum- 
ming up of the case : 

" However it may be accomplished, and whatever recep- 
tion the present-day scientific world may give to the asser- 
tion, there are many now who know, by first-hand experience, 
that communication is possible across the boundary, if there 
is a boundary, between the world apprehended by our few 
animal-derived senses and the larger existence concerning 
which our knowledge is still more limited. 

" Communication is not easy, but it occurs ; and humanity 
has reason to be grateful to those few individuals who, finding 
themselves possessed of the faculty of mediumship, and there- 
fore able to act as intermediaries, allow themselves to be 
used for this purpose. 

'^ Such means of enlarging our knowledge, and entering 
into relations with things beyond animal ken, can be abused 
like any other power; it can be played with by the merely 
curious, or it can be exploited in a very mundane way in 



SIE OLIVER LODGE — THE SCIENTIST 63 

the hope of warping it into the service of selfish ends, in the 
same way as old long accessible kinds of knowledge have too 
often been employed. But it can also be used reverently 
and seriously, for the very legitimate purpose of comforting 
the sorrowful, helping the, bereaved, and restoring some por- 
tion of the broken link between souls united in affection but 
separated for a time by an apparently impassable barrier. 
The barrier is turning out to be not hopelessly obdurate after 
all; intercoiirse between the two states is not so impossible 
as has been thought; something can be learned about oc- 
currences from either side; and gradually it is probable that 
a large amount of consistent and fairly coherent knowledge 
will be accumulated. 

" Meanwhile broken ties of affection have the first claim : 
and early efforts at communication from the departed are 
nearly always directed toward assuring survivors of the fact 
of continued personal existence, to help them to realize that 
changed surroundings have in no way weakened love or de- 
stroyed memory, and urging upon their friends with eager 
insistence that earthly happiness need not be irretrievably 
spoiled by bereavement. Eor purposes of this kind many 
trivial incidents are recalled, such as are well adapted to 
convince intimate friends and relatives that one particular 
intelligence, and no other, must be the source from which 
the messages ultimately spring, through whatever intermedi- 
aries they have to be conveyed. And to the people new to 
the subject, such messages are often immediately convincing." 

And now for his still more personal convictions : " What 
then is the conclusion of the whole matter ? Or rather, what 
effect have these investigations had upon my own outlook 
upon the universe? ... It must not be supposed that my 
outlook has changed, appreciably, since the event (Ra^nnond's 
death) and the particular experiences just related. My con- 
clusion has been gradually forming itself for years, though 



64 THE l^EW LIGHT 0"^ IMMORTALITY 

undoubtedly it is based on experiences of the same sort of 
thing. But this event has st7^engthened and liberated my 
testimony. It can now be associated with a private experi- 
ence of my own, instead of with the private experience of 
others. So long as one was dependent for evidence con- 
nected, even indirectly connected, with the bereavements of 
others, one had to be reticent and cautious and in some cases 
silent. Only by special permission could any portion of the 
facts be reproduced ; and that permission might, in important 
cases, be withheld. My own deductions were the same then 
as they are now, but the facts are now my own. 

^^ I am convinced of continued existence on the other side 
of death as I am of existence here. It may be said, you 
cannot be as sure as you are of sensory experience. I say I 
can. A physicist is never limited to direct sensory impres- 
sions; he has to deal with a multitude of conceptions and 
things, for which he has no physical organ; the dynamical 
theory of heat, for instance, and of gases, the theories of 
electricity, of magnetism, of chemical affinity, of cohesion, 
aye, and his apprehension of the Ether itself, lead him into 
regions where sight and hearing and touch are impotent as 
direct witnesses, where they are no longer efficient guides. 
In such regions everything has to be interpreted in terms of 
the insensible, the apparently unsubstantial, and in a definite 
sense, the imaginary. Yet these regions of knowledge are 
as clear and vivid to him as are any of those encountered in 
everyday occupations; indeed most commonplace phenomena 
themselves require interpretation in terms of ideas more 
subtle — the apparent solidity of matter itself demands ex- 
planation — and the underlying non-material entities of a 
physicist's conception become gradually as real and sub- 
stantial as anything he knows. As Lord Kelvin used to 
say, when in a paradoxical mood, ^ we really know more 
about electricity than we do about matter.' 



SIE OLIVER LODGE — THE SCIENTIST 65 

" That being so, I shall go further and say that I am 
reasonably convinced of the existence of grades of being, not 
only lower in the scale than man but higher also, grades of 
every order of magiiitude from zero to infinity. And I know 
by experience that among these beings are some who care 
for and help and guide humanity, not disdaining to enter 
even into what must seem petty details, if by so doing they 
can assist souls striving on their upward course. . . . And 
further it is my faith — however humbly it may be held — 
that among these lofty beings, highest of those who concern 
themselves directly with the earth, of all the myriad of worlds 
in infinite space, is One on whom the right instinct of Chris- 
tianity has always lavished heartfelt reverence and devotion. 

" My own time down here is getting short ; it matters little ; 
but I dare not go till I have borne this testimony to the grace 
and truth which emanate from that divine Being, the realiza- 
tion of whose tender-hearted simplicity and love for man may 
have been overlaid at times and almost lost amid well-inten- 
tioned but inappropriate dogma, but who is accessible as al- 
ways to the humble and the meek." 

Such, in brief, is the truly remarkable testimony of Sir 
Oliver Lodge as to the results of his studies of forty j^ears in 
the field of physics and mathematics, supplemented by at least 
twenty years of patient investigations in the field of psychic 
phenomena. Clearly, frankly, unequivocally, he accepts the 
spiritistic hypothesis as finally proved, at least for him. Un- 
like Maeterlinck and James, who confess themselves to being 
still psychic researchers. Lodge is sure that he has discovered 
the positive proof of human survival. With him the evi- 
dence for a spiritual universe and the continuity of life has 
been cumulative, reaching its climax undoubtedly in the re- 
cent experiences with E,aymond^s " spirit." Erom being an 
earnest inquirer, he moved on to the position of the believer, 
and at last, he is convinced, and on '^ scientific evidence," of 



66 THE NEW LIGHT O^t IMMORTALITY 

the truth of what he has formerly believed, so that he can hon- 
estly say, ^' I am as convinced of continued existence on the 
other side of death as I am of existence here." 

Such statements as we have quoted, if made by a spiritual- 
ist of a generation ago, would have only excited ridicule or 
even contempt, outside of an exceedingly restricted circle. 
But coming from Sir Oliver Lodge to-day, they have cer- 
tainly aroused wide-spread, and for the most part, respectful 
interest, even though they have in no sense compelled general 
acceptance of his position. To those who have read his books 
— not simply, " Eaymond " — and to those who have listened 
to his lectures on the subject, there can be no doubt as to his 
transparent sincerity, and no question but that for him the 
truth has been found at last. For him, faith has indeed be- 
come knowledge. He makes one feel that he Icnows, beyond 
the shadow of a doubt, that he is actually in communication 
with a real and living Eaymond to-day. 

And yet the question — " the eternal doubt '' — will still in- 
trude: Has he, great scientist though he be, unconscionsly 
deceived himself ? May he not have accepted as ^' scientific 
evidence" that which coincides with his own hopes, his de- 
sires, his love, more than it conforms to scientific tests ? He 
thinks not ; and no one doubts his veracity, however inclined 
some may be to question his judgment. Who can say, as yet ? 
Whether Sir Oliver Lodge is right or mistaken, in the conclu- 
sions he has reached, cannot be answered positively to-day; 
the final verdict must await the further disclosures of the in- 
vestigations in the field of psychic phenomena. 

It is quite evident that the impression made upon those who 
heard his lectures depended upon the previous bias of the in- 
dividual toward the subject. Those who already believed, 
naturally went away confirmed in their belief. The scien- 
tifically inclined — of the orthodox type — were very sure 
that he had interpreted facts by the spiritistic hypothesis that 



SIR OLIVER LODGE — THE SCIEI^rTIST 67 

were perfectly capable of psychic interpretation, and that he 
had dra^vn false conclusions from his premises. The honest 
" doubters " who were looking for ^' more light " were doubt- 
less impressed, but, for the most part, remained unconvinced. 
And there were some who were heard to say that he impressed 
them as a simple-minded, honest old man, so obsessed with 
the idea of survival after death, that he had lost all perspec- 
tive and could see nothing else. 

The question naturally arises: Why, if Sir Oliver Lodge 
has indeed found the " scientific proof,'' is he not more suc- 
cessful in carrying conviction to other minds both through his 
books and his lectures, especially since there are so many to- 
day who profess to be honestly looking for more light on the 
old problem ? Is his logic at fault ? Can his alleged facts in- 
deed be explained upon some other than the spiritistic hypoth- 
esis ? Are his conclusions based upon mere assumptions ? 
Is the trouble due to the difficulty of making the sigTiificance 
of psychic phenomena clear to minds untrained in such in- 
vestigations ? 

Or, is it because the spirit of the age is so sunk in material- 
ism that it is well-nigh impossible to conceive of any but a 
material existence, and even the best men and women remain 
incredulous in the presence of spiritual truth ? Or, finally, 
is it because for forty years. Sir Oliver Lodge has been dis- 
covering meanings in his studies of nature and its forces, and 
encountering experiences, personal, intimate and vital, in his 
investigations of psychic phenomena, such as have never come 
to the rank and file of men and women, and whose evidential 
value, in the nature of things, can never be imparted to others 
through mere words? 

At any rate. Sir Oliver Lodge has honestly sought to base 
his conclusions upon experience, and without some similar ex- 
perience, his words must natural^ seem quite meaningless, or 
else they must be accepted on faith. 



CHAPTER V 

JAMES HEKVEY HYSLOP THE PSYCHOLOGIST 

" ' Science,' says Lord Morley, who was saturated witli the 
philosophy of the Encyclopedists, "^when she has accomplished all 
her triumphs in her own order, will still have to go back, when 
the time comes, to assist in building up a new creed by which man 
may live.' That time has come, and recreant or cowardly is the 
man who does not seize the opportunity to shield the ideals that 
may bring a ^little sheen of inspiration out of the surrounding 
eternity to color with its own hues man's little islet of time.' All 
action has its fruition in the future and we must see the prospect 
before we can act rationally. Only he who has hope can be moved 
to any ventures that have idealism for their motive, or progress 
for their rational end." — James Hervey Hyslop. 

The death of James Hervey Hyslop, after a lingering ill- 
ness, in the early summer of 1920, removed from the jS.eld of 
psychic investigation its foremost leader in America to-day, 
and one of the most able and devoted workers that the " new 
science '' has thus far produced. His services to the cause in 
this country have been of greater value than those of any 
other single individual, since the death of Eichard Hodgson. 

After occupying the Chair of Logic and Ethics in Columbia 
University for a number of years, Hyslop resigned his pro- 
fessorship on account of a physical break-down, in 1904. 
The year following, Richard Hodgson, Secretary of the Amer- 
ican Branch of the Society for Psychical Research, died ; and 
in May, 1906, the new American Society was organized with 
Doctor Hyslop as its Secretary. This official position he oc- 
cupied until the time of his death. 

68 



JAMES H. HYSLOP — THE PSYCHOLOGIST 69 

As a former teacher of ethics, a skilled logician, possessed 
of a very considerable amount of scientific knowledge and 
thoroughly imbued with the scientific spirit,, with a strong 
bent toward psychological studies, Hyslop brought to his in- 
vestigations rare and unusual qualities of fitness for this most 
difficult work. While not a specialist in the field of psychol- 
ogy, nevertheless his approach to the subject was essentially 
that of the logician and the psychologist. 

It was long ago, probably even before he came to devote 
himself entirely to investigation in the psychical domain, that 
his writings revealed plainly enough, and not involuntarily, 
how strong was his own inclination to believe, not only that 
the dead are somewhere alive, but that they can and do send 
messages in various forms to the living. It was this predis- 
position to believe that doubtless led him eventually to devote 
his talents exclusively to these subjects. 

However, it was not until late in his life that he came out 
frankly and publicly on the side of the spiritistic hypothesis. 
Before that, he carefully, and somewhat laboriously, main- 
tained the attitude of the disinterested seeker after truth, of 
the possessor of the open mind, ready to follow wherever the 
facts might lead him. It is quite evident that he was fight- 
ing against his own natural desire to believe, in the desire to 
base his final conclusions on what he deemed to be purely sci- 
entific evidence. 

While a number of men of higher scientific attainments 
and of greater repute have come in their old age to agree 
with his conclusions, it is doubtful whether any one of them 
has remained so much the scientist to the end, or employed 
so consistently both the language and the methods of science, 
as has Hyslop. 

In the course of his long career in psychical research, 
Hyslop has been the object of many attacks. He has been 
ridiculed by thoughtless critics and, occasionally, bitterly as- 



70 THE NEW LIGHT OE" IMMOETALITY 

sailed by those more serious. Hi.« response was always 
prompt and vigorous, but he always kept his temper and cour- 
tesy. He was never intolerant nor fanatical, and, unlike so 
many other " spiritualists," he did not resent the expression 
of opinions contrary to his own, nor did he ever claim for his 
views any special tenderness of treatment in controversy. 
He welcomed controversy as a means of eliciting the truth, 
and while himself at last convinced that the dead are alive and 
can communicate with the living, he did not insist nor expect 
that others should follow him, until they had become likewise 
convinced. 

Unlike many outspoken '^ spiritualists," Hyslop knew as 
well as any one the other explanations that might be given for 
psychic phenomena besides the spiritistic one; and he had 
more than ordinary skill in demonstration that they, too, 
made demands on faith, and even on credulity, as the condi- 
tion of their acceptance. His broad general culture has also 
enabled him to point out the bearings of the notion of survival 
on the life of man here and now — on politics, society and 
religion ; and thus he has indicated the social, moral and re- 
ligious implications of the belief in immortality, perhaps, 
more clearly and forcefully than any other writer. 

It is fortunate indeed that Hyslop has left behind him some 
dozen or more books, in which he has carefully and most ex- 
haustively compiled the results of his long investigations, stat- 
ing clearly and frankly the evidence which has led him to his 
final conclusions, and also writing most illuminatingly and 
suggestively on the larger implications of the subject. These 
books will continue to hold their richly deserved and promi- 
nent place in the literature of psychic phenomena. 

The spirit in which the prosecution of his investigations has 
been carried on from beginning to end, iinds clear expression 
in the preface to his last book, entitled, " Contact with the 
Other World.'' ''' The present volume endeavors to treat 



JAMES H. HYSLOP — THE PSYCHOLOGIST 71 

every aspect of the problem regarding a future life and es- 
pecially emphasizes a large mass of facts that ought to have 
cumulative weight in deciding the issue. . . . The work as a 
whole makes an effort to help readers who want a scientific 
view of the subject, into a critical way of dealing with prob- 
lems which are far larger than the case of mere survival. 
The attitude is more conservative than many of the books that 
have a popular hearing. This is rendered necessary by the 
exceedingly complex nature of the problems before psychic 
research. If I succeed in leading intelligent people to take 
scientific interest in the phenomena while they preserve 
proper cautions in accepting conclusions, I shall have accom- 
plished all that can be expected in a work of this kind, and 
though I regard the evidence of survival after death conclu- 
sive for most people who have taken the pains to examine the 
evidence critically, I have endeavored in this work to can- 
vass the subject as though it had still to be proved." 

He further defines the aims and the limits of psychic re- 
search, as he conceives them, in the following words : '' It is 
easy to understand the accusation that psychic research is con- 
nected 'with fetishism, for its fundamental interest is in a 
doctrine that had its origin in what is known as animism. 
But the attempt to throttle investigation by invoking the con- 
tempt heaped on primitive minds was hasty and ill-advised. 
Those who think it dignified to study folk-lore certainly can- 
not consider it undignified to pursue inquiries into the real 
causes of animism. . . . Primitive minds may have been 
wrong in their theories, but they seem to have had facts which 
require consideration, even though we go no further than 
fraud or hysteria to account for them ; and to find these facts 
is to discover their kinship with those of modern times." 

"" But true psychic research took its origin not from any 
sympathy with the ideas of savages nor from any conscious- 
ness that the two stages of culture are connected. It was a 



72 THE NEW LIGHT 01!^ IMMOETALITY 

very concrete set of incidents tliat exacted of fair-minded men, 
tlie examination of the facts. Even the types of phenomena 
did not present themselves clearly at the outset. The most 
prominent v^ere those claiming to embody some form of com- 
munication with the dead; hut types of unusual phenomena 
were soon found that could lay no claim to this^ character, and 
they seemed to offer a ground of compromise between ortho- 
dox science and the claims of the supernatural. Among 
such phenomena were telepathy or mind reading, dousing, 
hypnosis, suggestion, muscle reading and perhaps a few 
others." 

This set of phenomena, at least, superficially appeared to 
be inexplicable by the ordinary theories of science. They 
were taboo to normal psychology, for no scientific man was 
prepared to reinstate the traditional idea of the supernatural. 
Hence the terms " psychic research " and ^' psychic phenom- 
ena " were chosen to denominate a border-land set of phe- 
nomena that might possibly be resolved into recognized types 
of events which, though unusual, would not necessitate the 
revision of orthodox beliefs. Psychic Rosearch thus became 
a compromise offered by one school of recognized scientists 
to another, in the hope that some means might be found to ex- 
tend tolerance to certain persistent facts that would not dis- 
appear at the command of conjurer or skeptic." 

" The three types of phenomena which gave most offense 
were telepathy, apparitions and mediumship. Hypnotism 
had won recognition, though only after meeting opposition 
hardly less bitter than that which these more inexplicable 
facts encountered. Muscle reading and phenomena due to 
hyperaesthesia, or acute sensibility, lay on the border-land, 
and offered to the conservative mind a natural explanation 
of the facts to which they were relevant. Fraud, coincidence 
and suggestion were explanations which further limited O'r re- 
futed the claims of the supernormal or the supernatural. . 



JAMES H. HYSLOP — THE PSYCHOLOGIST 73 

" 'Not all the phenomena, appropriated by Psychic Eesearch 
are of equal value in the study of the problem which came 
easily to the front; namely, the problem of the existence of 
discarnate spirits. The theory of spirit-agency had been ad- 
vanced from time immemorial, to cover the whole field ; but iti 
was the first task of investigators to discriminate among the 
phenomena and to determine their evidential values. Eor 
instance, neither telepathic coincidences nor the movement oi 
objects without physical contact is, in itself, evidence of spir- 
itual agencies. . . . The field had to be mapped out on the 
basis that many people were not discriminating in the explan- 
ation of the facts. . . . Only apparitions and mediumistic 
phenomena presented any immediately apparent evidence for 
discarnate spirits. 

" Any new fact always alters the perspective of previous 
knowledge, even when it does not revolutionize it. Psychic 
Eesearch was well adapted to rouse curiosity on the subject of 
the supersensible. Even telepathy sO' threatened the stability 
of materialism that skepticism was irreconcilably opposed to 
it, though telepathy did not involve spirit agencies. But phe- 
nomena that even looked like evidence in favor of ' spirits,' 
excited the most rabid skepticism, because they seemed to 
threaten all the previous conquests of physical science over the 
supernatural. 

'^ It was impossible to evade the discussion of the doctrine 
of spiritualism in the face of its claims. No matter what our 
decision about telepathy, dousing, telekinesis and hypnotism, 
the apparent meaning of apparitions and mediumistic phe- 
nomena required further consideration; and whether we be^ 
lieved or disbelieved in the spiritistic interpretation, we had 
to face the issue. The practical and ethical interests of man 
concentrated attention on this one question and subordinated 
all others. Spiritualism therefore gained prominence and, 
in the course of time, challenged any defender of materialis- 



74 THE ISTEW LIGHT O^ IMMORTALITY 

tic science to meet it in the arena. Skepticism was handi- 
capped in snch a debate. It might insist on natural laws, but 
it was always menaced by the prospect of contending with 
human needs, which have as much influence in determining 
many beliefs as any of the rigid standards of evidence that 
will have nothing to do with the ethical ideals of man." 

We have quoted these particular passages, not only as re- 
vealing the spirit and the attitude that pei-vades all Hyslop's 
work in this field, but also, as clearly pointing out why it was 
that psychic research has increasingly and inevitably come to 
be more and more engrossed in the supreme question of hu- 
man survival. At bottom, this is the primary and funda- 
mental problem that must be solved before any full or final ex- 
planation of this class of phenomena can be found. 

Hyslop makes it very clear, in all that he has written on the 
subject, that the term, " spirit," means nothing more than the 
stream of consciousness or personality with which we are fa- 
miliar in every human being. Whether it is accompanied 
by what is called " the spiritual body " of Saint Paul, ^' the 
astral body " of the theosophists, or the ^^ etherial organism " 
of the Greek materialists and many scientific spiritualists of 
to-day, he regards as wholly irrelevant to the main question. 
He neither upholds nor denies that we have ^^ spiritual 
bodies " not perceptible to sense. Even if one assumes this 
spiritual body, one need not necessarily accept the spiritistic 
theory of the mind. 

'^ What we want to know is whether that spiritual body is 
conscious or not, and conscious with the same memory that the 
person had when living his earthly life. If the spiritual body 
has no memory of the past, if the stream of consciousness or 
personality does not survive with it, there is little interest in 
the fact of survival either as a spiritual body or in the form of 
reincarnation. The interesting and important thing is tlie 
survival of personal identity, which consists wholly in the 



JAMES H. HYSLOP — THE PSYCHOLOGIST 75 

stream of consciousness with its memory of tlie past, and not 
in any spiritual body, no matter how necessary this latter may 
be to the survival of the mental stream itself." 

Hyslop, it is evident, uses the term " personality " purely 
in the technical or philosophic sense. This conception of per- 
sonality is concerned only with mental characteristics; it 
makes no distinction betiween common and specific marks. 
In fact, it connotes mental processes rather than fixed quali- 
ties. The capacity for having mental states, or the fact of 
having them, constitutes personality for the psychologist. 
Personality is thus the stream of consciousness, regardless of 
the question whether any special state is constant or casual, es- 
sential or unessential. 

It is this conception of personality that gives rise to per- 
petual misunderstandings between the psychologist and the 
public. The layman with his popular conception of person- 
ality looks for physical phenomena of some kind to prove sur- 
vival. Consequently he prefers materialization, which best 
satisfies his conception of personality. He demands sensory 
characteristics, while the psychologist fixes his attention on 
mental states as the proper conception of personality that may 
survive. All forms of materialization, and in fact all forms 
of physical phenomena, taken by themselves, do not furnish 
the evidence for survival. It is precisely because mental 
states are not presented to sense, that the psychologist is able 
to conceive the possibility of immortality. 

" We have to determine the survival of personality in the 
same way that we determine whether another person in the 
body is conscious. We are so accustomed to think that we 
have direct knowledge of other personalities, that we forget 
the exceedingly complicated process of ascertaining whether 
other people are conscious. That this process is the same as 
that of ascertaining the existence of discarnate spirits will be 
apparent from the following considerations ; 



76 THE NEW LIGHT 01^ IMMOETALITY 

(1) We know personality ot consciousness directly, or in- 
trospect ively, only in ourselves. 

(2) We know the existence of personality or consciousness 
in others, only indirectly, or by inference from behavior mani- 
fested in some form of action. 

(3) Catalepsy and paralysis, in some cases, involve a dis- 
appearance of personality similar to that of death, but its re- 
appearance shows that it was still present when it was sup- 
posed to be non-existent. 

(4) Death offers a situation only slightly different from 
that of catalepsy and paralysis. Consciousness ceases to 
function, and we should remain in total ignorance of its con- 
tinued existence, unless we ascertain facts which necessitate 
the inference of its persistence. 

It is thus the stream of consciousness that is for Hyslop the 
thing of prime importance in the question of survival. There 
might be " spiritual '' bodies without personality ; it only de- 
fers the real problem to assume or prove their existence. Ul- 
timately, we are driven to the discovery of facts which will 
prove the continuance of personality as a stream of conscious- 
ness by the method here used — namely, the isolation of con- 
sciousness from the body, or the production of facts from 
which an inference can be drawn that this personality has per- 
sisted beyond death and is not a function of the physical body. 

It is from these general premises and in this spirit that 
Hyslop has carried on his investigations for a score or more 
years. He summarizes his results from this work in the fol- 
lowing personal conclusions : 

" Whatever skepticism prevails regarding these facts of 
psychic research is due to various influences. Sometimes it 
is mere prejudice ; sometimes it is ignorance both of the prob- 
lem and of the facts; and there is much opposition that is 
based on neither prejudice nor ignorance, but on mere intel- 
lectual obstinacy and pride. It is easy to oppose any belief 



JAMES H. HYSLOP — THE PSYCHOLOGIST Y7 

if you are so disposed. The will to disbelieve is quite as 
prevalent as ^ the will to believe/ and is no more creditable. 
Much prejudice and ignorance are excusable, when we con- 
sider how powerfully environment acts upon our beliefs. 
The line of least resistance is to follow the ideas of the com- 
munity in which we have been brought up. Prejudice is, 
therefore, more or less unavoidable, at least on matters about 
which we have little or no opportunity to work out systematic 
beliefs. Ignorance is but an accompaniment of these same 
influences and is more excusable than prejudice. 

■^^ Hostility, however, based upon intellectual pride and ob- 
stinacy, has no such excuse. It is irrefutable except by ridi- 
cule and the resistance of public opinion. It infects all 
minds sophisticated by knowledge and tending to defend pre- 
existing ideas. . . . ^Nevertheless, all intelligent people are 
called upon to keep preconceptions in abeyance in the presence 
of new facts. Truth is always dependent, upon facts enough 
to make it clear that it represents some sort of law in the 
w^orld. Even if facts are exceptional they must be compatible 
with the law of unity in nature. Frequency of occurrence is 
the evidence of law and of articulation with the cosmic order. 
This fact explains and, at least, half justifies the cautiousness 
of the average man in weighing every claim that comes along 
for the supernatural. But history has shown us that caution 
has its limits. Such an influence might be invoked, as it was 
by the Church, against any change of our ideas whatever. 
But no such habit should characterize the scientific mind. 
The very essence of science is the understanding of change as 
well as the constancies of nature. 

" The course suggested, however, has not often been taken. 
Prom no one has psychic research met more opposition than 
from the scientific man. His attitude is explicable but not al- 
ways excusable. The conquests of physical science are sup- 
posed to have eliminated the ^ supernatural ' from human 



78 THE JSTEW LIGHT 01^ IMMORTALITY 

belief, and most scientific men still think that psychic research 
threatens to restore that ' beast ' to power. Bnt there is no 
danger that past conceptions of the supernatural will again 
find currency, and no serious consequences can happen from 
giving the term ' supernatural ' as clear a meaning as that of 
' nature.' 

" The emphasis, however, upon regularity is import.ant. 
The systematic and rational behavior of life depends upon 
the constancies of the cosmos. If it were as changeable as 
the supernaturalist assumes it to be, there would be little op- 
portunity for any ethical development, and perhaps none for 
the slow evolution of human life and its functions. The sci- 
entific skeptic of the ^ supernatural ' has in his hands the 
answer to the question cui bono, if only he will use it instead 
of making the concept of nature serve as the basis of a new 
dogmatism and a new intolerance. But in order to defend 
regularity, he sacrifices all the benefits that come from a 
spiritual conception of the world's order. His opponent in- 
sists as strenuously on a conception that invokes caprice 
against law. Why are not both law and caprice as reconcil- 
able with nature as with the supernatural ? It is certain 
that both exist, whatever view we take either of nature or the 
supernatural. 

'' It is wearisome to insist on the meaning of such facts as 
I have cited in this volume" ('^Contact with the Other 
World "). '^ Their import is clear. They certainly make a 
spiritistic hypothesis acceptable. The illustrations quoted 
may not sufiice to demonstrate the existence of a future life, if 
taken alone or regarded as the total evidence of such a theory, 
and I do not quote them with the expectation that they alone 
will settle the issue. They are but examples of phenomena as 
old as history, and as extensive and constant as any other phe- 
nomena of nature. 



JAMES H. HYSLOP — THE PSYCHOLOGIST Y9 

" The only difficulty the spiritistic hypothesis faces is the 
ignorance and prejudice of the puhlic. That ignorance and 
prejudice may be excusable; but they are obstacles, and the 
only obstacles to the belief in immortality. The objections 
based upon the triviality of the facts, the fragmentary and 
confused nature of the communications and the absurdity of 
the revelations, are beside the mark. They betray total ig- 
norance of the problem and of the process involved in getting 
the data. The problem of the proof of personal identity is 
crucial, and nothing but trivial facts will satisfy the condi- 
tions of such proof. The fragmentary nature of the messages 
and the apparent absurdities of the revelations about the other 
world are caused by the process of communicating and by the 
difficulties of representing a different world in terms of our 
o"v\Ti. Untrained readers assume too readily that the condi- 
tions of intercourse between the two worlds are either like our 
own, or so nearly like them as not to effect the contents of the 
messages. 

'' The spiritistic hypothesis is not a revelation but an ex- 
planation. Its development and ramifications await future 
work. At present it is necessary as a means of making the 
main facts intelligible. It maintains only that there is sci- 
entific evidence of the survival of personal consciousness, and 
not that we know all about the nature and conditions of a 
transcendental world. It establishes the main point and 
leaves the accessories of the hypothesis to be determined. 

" Personally I regard the fact of survival after death as sci- 
entifically proved. I agree that this opinion is not upheld in 
scientific quarters. But this is neither our fault nor the fault 
of the facts. Evolution was not believed until long after it 
was proved. The fault lay with those who were too ignorant 
or too stubborn to accept the facts. History shows that every 
intelligent man who has gone into this investigation, if he 



80 THE I^EW LIGHT O^ IMMOETALITY 

gave it adequate examinatiooi at all, has come out believing in 
spirits; this circumstance places the burden of proof on the 
shoulders of the skeptic. 

^^ The present war and the manner in v^hich it is making 
multitudes think of the meaning of life and death will do 
more than a hundred years of academic talk to awaken inter- 
est in the problem. The person suffering the pangs of grief 
or asking for the solution of the enigma of existence, and not 
afraid of his neighbor, will think for himself. Those who 
have to face the realities, both econo^mical and moral, will not 
trust their salvation to sophists or to men who do not enter 
into the real problems of the world. They will go straight to 
the solution that fits the facts, and as usual, the academic 
sophist will lose his hold on the forces of civilization. 

'^ Insight has more to do with the problem than much learn- 
ing. The public will go straight to the heart of the matter, 
and those who assume academic authority without scientific 
knowledge will find themselves shorn of power. Those who 
should have led will have to follow. If they do not see their 
opportunity, we can only repeat the warning of the prophet : 
' Israel is joined to his idols, let him alone.' 

" But whatever we believe about immortality to-day, we 
cannot question the causal influence of consciousness on the 
stream of physical phenomena. If we once grant the exist- 
ence of spirit, incarnate or discamate, we must admit it to a 
place among the causes in nature ; indeed we shall hardly dis- 
cover its existence save through its effects. 

" I do not forget that the belief in immortality may be 
abused. It is as easy to be too ' other-worldly ' as to be too 
'worldly. The truth is beneficial or harmful according to the 
character of the man who accepts it. Guns and gunpowder 
are exceedingly useful in the hands of the right man but a 
dangerous evil in the wrong hands. We prize liberty but 
there is no conception which cannot be abused more than this. 



JAMES H. HYSLOP — THE PSYCHOLOGIST 81 

There is probably not a single truth which human nature can- 
not pervert. A belief in a future life is no exception. But 
the fact that it was abused in the Middle Ages, or that it may 
be too much stressed by some minds, is no reason for ignoring 
the doctrine. Some tell us that I^ature or Providence does 
not intend us to know about a future life, but the same type of 
mind told us that we should not inquire into the process of 
nature. 

^' There is no truth that can be made more helpful to man 
than a belief in survival. It will all depend on the balance 
of his mind. Disregarding it, leads to the materialism that 
has nearly wrecked civilization in the greatest war of history. 
We do not want the belief established in order to concentrate 
attention again on the hereafter, but to fix a balance in human 
endeavor. If N^ature values the inner life, what man has 
called the ' spiritual life ' — the virtues of reflection, gentil- 
ity, unselfishness and all the attitudes of mind and will that 
take him away from an exclusively sensuous life, it is time 
that we have a philosophy and outlook that helps to sustain 
the higher ideals of consciousness. It is for its reflex influ- 
ence on the ethics of the present life that it is important, not 
for its power to make us ignore the imperative duties of the 
present. 

" The neglect or hostility which the subject receives is one 
of the curious problems of psychology. If a new engine for 
an aeroplane is announced, the inventor is acclaimed a bene- 
factor of the world. If some new substance to take the place 
of gasoline is discovered, all the capitalists in the country 
tumble over themselves to get control of it. A new element 
in chemistry is announced with all the fervor of a miracle. 
Anything that will fill the human belly with the husks that the 
swine do eat, is considered the greatest thing in the world. 
But if a man offers evidence that he has a soul and that he 
may expect to live after death, he is called insane, though he 



82 THE ]^EW LIGHT O:^ IMMORTALITY 

may prove the prolongation of consciousness which is the one 
aspiration of every effort a man makes in life. 'No better in- 
dication of the ntter materialism of the age conld be adduced. 

" The belief in immortality is the keystone to the arch of 
history, or the pivotal point about which moves the intellec- 
tual, the ethical and the political forces of all time. If sci- 
ence cannot protect our ethical ideals, it will have to succumb 
to the same corrosion that has worn away the Church. 
Something must put an end to doubt. There are many situa- 
tions in life that call for heroic measures, and skepticism on 
the outcome of life offers no inducement to the heroic virtues. 

" Poetry has probably done more than philosophy to re- 
deem the human race. It sees more than naked facts. These 
last we must see and respect, with all the clearness that will 
prevent their discoloration from interest and emotion. But 
if we suppose that knowledge achieves its ends without feel- 
ing, we shall miss the main opportunities of life. ^Neither 
one nor the other is the whole object of existence. They sup- 
plement each other. 

" The Stoic on the one hand and the Epicurean on the 
other, equally miss the meaning of life. The via media has 
always been the path of sanity and commonsense,, and neither 
knowledge nor emotion alone will give intellectual or moral 
health. Their functions must be adjusted to each other ; only 
on that condition will a man be saved the ravages of skepti- 
cism and the consequences of libertinism. 

" The age is in the throes of a search for certitude, and it is 
not limited, in that search, to the problem of immortality. 
The belief in iromortality, which had been made important 
for many centuries, was doomed to decay unless assurance 
could be given the human mind regarding it. It had been so 
closely related to Ethics that its decay threatened the de- 
struction of all ethical and spiritual endeavor. We take what 
is certain, if it is only the sensuous life, but if we find that 



JAMES H. HYSLOP — THE PSYCHOLOGIST 83 

ITature assigns this a secondary place and means to preserve 
the inner spiritnal life for further cultivation, the sacrifice of 
the physical and sensuous is rendered more easy, and even 
when it has a place in our spiritual development, it will not 
have the intensity of interest that it possesses when we have 
the prospect of nothing else. 

^' Were we mere animals, without ideals or hopes, we 
might be indifferent to the course of ISTature. We might live 
in the present moment without doing any violence to the moral 
laws. But if ideals encourage in us a life above the sensual, 
we need assurance that E'ature will compensate us for the 
present loss ; and if we find that survival is part of her scheme, 
the bitterness that would haunt us if we were without hope 
will be less poignant. . . . We need an interpretation of the 
world which will do something to mitigate suffering, if we 
cannot escape it, or to excuse it, if we find it a means to an 
end. The sadness of sunset is only sublime pathos when we 
are assured of another dawn." 

Thus we see that Hyslop, like Sir Oliver Lodge, has found 
through his investigations of psychic phenomena what is to 
him the clear proof, based on " scientific evidence," of sur- 
vival after death. He writes even more dogmatically than do 
the others we have considered of his conclusions, which he 
professes to have reached as a trained logician, employing 
only the scientific method in his study of the facts. It is to be 
noted, however, that he confines himself exclusively to the 
main question of the survival of personal consciousness. Of 
the nature and conditions of the life hereafter he has nothing 
to say, and he refrains from all speculations on the future in 
which Sir Oliver Lodge is inclined to indulge. He under- 
stands his age in its moral and spiritual weaknesses, and it is 
the ethical implications of survival that make the strongest 
appeal to him. For him, the problem is vastly more than one 
of merely curious human interest as to the future, or of find- 



84 THE 'NEW LIGHT ON IMMOETALITY 

ing some real and positive assurance that may bring comfort 
and confidence to the sorrowing. It is a life and death mat- 
ter, in more senses than one. The higher moral and spiritual 
life of men and women depend on the discovery and the ac- 
ceptance of this truth. He writes with all the fervor of a 
prophet of old, as he seeks to make it clear that unless human- 
ity can regain its vital faith in immo^rtality, civilization, in all 
that makes it worth while, is doomed. 

There can be no question, as one reads his books carefully, 
but that survival after death is the " proved truth " to Hys- 
lop; he fairly glories in his ^' kno'wledge," and yet, to how 
many who read, have his books been able to impart the same 
clear conviction of truth? Does the difficulty lie in his in- 
terpretation of the facts, however honest ; is his logic at fault, 
or as he claims, is the igTiorance, the prejudice, the intellec- 
tual pride and obstinacy of the many who still doubt, the real 
cause of their unbelief? 



CHAPTER VI 

THE PEESE,iq"T STATUS OF PSYCHIC EESEAECH 

" No sane man has ever pretended, since science became a 
definite body of doctrine, that we know or ever can hope to know 
or conceive the possibility of knowing whence the mechanism has 
come, why it is there, whither it is going, or what may be beyond 
or beside it which our senses are incapable of appreciating. These 
things are not ' explained ' by science and never can be." — Sir E. 
Bay Lanhester. 

The four outstanding investigators in the field of psychic 
research, whom we have just considered, though differing 
widely in temperament, in training, and in the essential view- 
point from which they approach the subject, will serve to 
illustrate, in their respective experiences and their own per- 
sonal conclusions, the present-day status of psychic research. 

Two of them — Maeterlinck and James — frankly confess 
themselves to be still seekers after the truth, as yet uncon- 
vinced as to where lies the actual interpretation of the facts 
they both admit to be genuine — at least so far as any authori- 
tative statement from either man would indicate. These 
facts may prove to be due to psychic powers in man, not as yet 
discovered or comprehended by science. On the other hand, 
they may eventually prove to be due to some discarnate intel- 
ligence. Judging from their published statements, their at- 
titude is one of expectant waiting for the disclosure of new 
facts. Yet for both, the special studies in this field have ap- 
parently served to deepen their predisposition or desire to be- 
lieve in some kind of immortality, and to increase their hope 
that one day the clearer light may shine. In the case of 

85 



86 THE NEW LIGHT OIsT IMMORTALITY 

James, tlie " great adventure '' lias already been entered upon, 
and lie has even now found that '^ clearer light/' or else he has 
fallen upon eternal sleep. 

The other two — Lodge and Hyslop — with equal frank- 
ness, confess themselves as clearly convinced that they have 
found the truth, and on purely scientific evidence. While ad- 
mitting the possibility of some sort of telepathic hypothesis 
to explain the facts, they feel completely satisfied that the 
great preponderance of evidence is on the side of the spiritis- 
tic hypothesis ; and they both prove the courage and strength 
of their convictions not only in their private, but in their pub- 
lic utterances as well. With both of them the conviction has 
come as the result of the cumulative evidence growing out of 
the investigations of many years. " They stand as the open 
champions of an immortality for man that has been finally 
proved by strictly scientific methods. That the scientific 
world has not yet accepted their '^ proof " as such, does not 
disturb them. It is only a question of time when it will. 
Meantime, they believe that the '^ light " that shines for them 
is gradually spreading, and that eventually it will fill the 
whole world with the absolute assurance that death does not 
end all. Of these two, it is Hyslop who has already essayed 
the ^' great experience,'' so that even now he either knows that 
his conclusions were correct, or else, he does not care. Maet- 
erlinck and Lodge — one the earnest seeker and one the con- 
vinced believer, are still with us, under conditions of time and 
sense. 

These four men, though perhaps better known through 
their writings and public lectures than many others, are never- 
theless typical of all investigators in this field, both trained 
and untrained in this special work. There are those who, like 
Lodge and Hyslop, are convinced of the truth of human sur- 
vival on the basis of the evidence already discovered — per- 
haps a larger number than has been supposed, since all such 



STATUS OF PSYCHIC EESEAECH 87 

workers have, by no means, given expression to their convic- 
tions in public utterances. Then there are those who, like 
Maeterlinck and James, have been tremendously impressed by 
the evidence, and yet who remain intellectually uncertain as 
to the true interpretation of the facts. These doubtless con- 
stitute a still larger class. There are also those who appear 
to be as strongly convinced as are the spiritists that the only 
explanation of the facts is to be found in the psychic powers 
of incarnate man, and that discarnate intelligences have noth- 
ing to do with the phenomena. Frank Podmore, through his 
widely read books, is one of the best known representatives 
of this group, whose numbers are probably smaller than either 
of the other two. 

It would appear that Hyslop, in spite of his saving clause, 
was making too broad a statement scarcely warranted by the 
facts, when he says: ^'History shows that every intelligent 
man who has gone into this investigation, if he gave it ade- 
quate examination at all, has come out believing in spirits." 
The attitude of James and Maeterlinck would certainly refute 
such a statement ; not to mention others, like Professor Sedg- 
wick, one of the founders and the first President of the Eng- 
lish Society for Psychical Research, who said to James the 
year before his death, that if any one had told him at the out- 
set that after twenty years of investigating these phenomena, 
he would be in the same identical state of doubt and balance 
that he started with, he would have deemed the prophecy in- 
credible. The cause of truth gains nothing by exaggeration, 
and the spiritists do not help their case by claiming more than 
the clear facts give them. 

The simple fact is that there is to-day no unanimity of 
opinion among the workers in the field of psychic phenomena, 
except that they are all apparently agreed that trickery and 
fraud do not furnish the sole or the adequate explanation of 
many of the phenomena investigated. All the investigators 



88 THE NEW LIGHT 0¥ IMMORTALITY 

frankly admit that many of the alleged facts are genuine, but 
they differ widely as to the meaning and significance of these 
facts. This by no means proves that the spiritistic hypothesis 
may not one day generally be admitted to be scientifically 
true, nor should it in any degree serve to discourage investi- 
gations in this field. Let us remember that evolution was 
proved to be true long before it was generally accepted as a 
doctrine of science. 

What it does mean, however, is that the investigations in 
this important field are still in the process of discovering the 
truth that unquestionably must lie back of psychic phenom- 
ena. That the truth has not yet been disclosed so as to admit 
of general acceptance is due to various causes — the vastness 
of the field to be covered, the shortness of the time as yet 
given to this study, the complexity of the phenomena them- 
selves, the inadequateness of the evidence found, the compara- 
tive ignorance of man's inner mental states and of the range 
of his psychic powers, together with the ingrained conserva- 
tive tendency of the human mind in accepting any new truth. 

In view of these conditions prevailing to-day in the field of 
psychic research, it is most desirable that there should con- 
tinue to be the clash of confiicting schools of thought, the con- 
flict of divergent and opposing opinions, — the Podmores and 
the Lodges, with the Maeterlincks and the Jameses sand- 
wiched in between — all types of temperament and all 
classes of minds devoting themselves to the ascertainment of 
the facts in this domain, if only at last the investigations are 
carried on to their successful issue and the ultimate truth is 
found. It is only in this way that truth ever comes to be 
known, and to take its permanent place in the scientific body 
of ascertained knowledge. 

The fact to be kept in mind by all intelligent people to-day 
— a fact that is by no means appreciated by all interested in 
the subject — is that the ultimate truth of psychic phe- 



STATUS OF PSYCHIC EESEAECH 89 

nomena is still in the research, stage; it has not yet beeai 
finally discovered. Some scientific students have reached 
certain conclusions; others, equally scientific and facing the 
same identical facts, have arrived at different conclusions; 
while a larger number still hesitate and are uncertain as 
to the real meaning of the phenomena. So long as this con- 
dition prevailSj it cannot be truthfully said that human sur- 
vival has been scientifically proved, save for certain individ- 
uals like Lodge, Hyslop and others. But no more can it be 
said to have been disproved. The main problem is still in 
the crucible of inquiry. We may accept any view we choose 
as a working hypotbesis, but our final conclusion of the whole 
matter must be held in abeyance, in the light of present evi- 
dence, that is, if we desire to maintain the scientific attitude. 
There can be no question but that eventually science will be 
able to afiirm generally and positively, where the real truth 
lies, unless we are ready to admit that there are some facts 
that must forever bafile the human mind to explain. 

For those who, in their earnest search for more light on 
the old problem — and there are many such to-day — turn 
from the perusal of the many books recently published on 
psychic phenomena and its bearing on immortality, in uncer- 
tainty or doubt or misgivings, having failed to find the satis- 
factory '^ proof " they sought, the first and greatest need is 
patience. Most of the books on the subject that deserve to be 
called scientific are largely taken up with the narrative of ex- 
periences and the adducing of evidence that seem to have little 
meaning and less bearing on immortality to the mind un- 
trained in psychic studies. In addition, most scientific au- 
thors are inclined to be non-committal, to say the least, when 
it comes to the foiTQulation of their own conclusions. As a 
matter of fact, many of these writers have not arrived at any 
conclusions as yet, or at least, they are not ready to go on 
record publicly. Their chief interest, at present, lies in pre^ 



90 THE I^EW LIGHT OJST IMMORTALITY 

senting the different lines of evidence for whicli they feel they 
can safely vouch, for what they may be worth, leaving the fu- 
ture to draw from this evidence what conclusions it may. 

On the other hand, there are many books written in all sin- 
cerity but wholly lacking the scientific view-point and spirit. 
Many times they are the product of some enthusiastic be- 
liever, whose zeal is greater than his knowledge, and who 
knows nothing whatever of the principles underlying psychic 
investigation, but who has had some '^ great experience " and 
hastens to give it to the world. And from such books, the 
earnest seeker after truth turns away in impatience, if not 
quite disgust, or else, is left cold and unmoved by the strange 
mingling of faith and credulity. To all such it must be said 
frankly and yet with deepest sympathy, there is no single 
book, no, nor all of them put together, to which one can turn 
in the certainty of finding the scientific proof, the absolute as- 
surance of survival after death, that will bring satisfaction to 
the mind and heart of the reader. Such printed proof, if 
indeed it exists, is yet to be forthcoming. 

What one finds in books is the record of strange experi- 
ences, more or less mysterious, that may or may not have 
brought conviction to the writer, but that seldom if ever serve 
to bring conviction to the reader. For in a question so cru- 
cial as this, conviction is only born out of personal experience ; 
it is rarely imparted through the experiences of others. It 
is safe to say that many of those whom the reading of " Ray- 
mond '' leaves doubting and incredulous, would be enthusias- 
tic believers if the same or similar experiences should come 
to them as have come to Sir Oliver Lodge. But even when 

the personal experince is encountered even then, all but 

the most credulous and those who are predisposed to believe, 
are often strangely inclined to halt between two opinions. 
This is largely due to the uncertain conditions prevailing in 
the field of psychic phenomena, as well as to the personal equa- 



STATUS OF PSYCHIC EESEAECH 91 

tion ; and in some great measure, it proceeds from the general 
skeptical temper of the age. 

It is only when we attempt to analyze the results achieved 
since the Societies for Psychical Eesearch first came into ex- 
istence back in the eighties, that we begin to clearly perceive 
how mnch actually has been accomplished in this short space 
of time; and even though, to the majority of minds, the con- 
vincing proof of human survival is still lacking, there can be 
no doubt of the real progress that has been made toward the 
ultimate solution of the problem. Let us briefly review what 
has been accomplished already in this difficult field. 

For the first time in human history, the whole question of 
man's future destiny has been approached in a serious and sci- 
entific spirit, with no ulterior motive than that of simply as- 
certaining the exact facts as to survival after death, if that 
be a possible thing. From earliest times, these same phe- 
nomena that we now call '^ psychic " have been in the world. 
All literature of all peoples is full of references to them. 
They have occupied a foremost place in most of the religions 
of early times, they shaped the forms and inspired the prac- 
tices of the secret rites and esoteric beliefs of the ancient 
^^ mysteries '' of Greece and Rome and of many other peoples, 
they have furnished the bases for the doctrines of immortality 
that have held a central place in the more advanced religions 
of recent times, and yet, strange as it may seem, this whole 
class of phenomena., from which have arisen such momentous 
influences in the life of mankind, have been left to the con- 
trol and exercise of more or less ignorant priests, of unknown 
and grossly ignorant ^^ mediums,'' of self-confessed charla- 
tans — in a word, of those who have preyed upon human ig- 
norance and credulity chiefly for the sake of selfish gain. 

The modern spiritualists sought to rescue these phenomena 
from the disrepute into which they had fallen at the hands of 
ignorant or designing persons, and to elevate belief in them 



92 THE ]S[EW LIGHT OK IMMOETALITY 

and in what they signified into a religion. In spite of all the 
just criticism that can be made, the spiritualistic movement 
of modern times, not only produced among its leaders a num- 
ber of noble characters and won many honest disciples in 
many lands, but it also served to bring these phenomena so 
prominently and so persistently before the public mind, as 
to lead at length to the formation of the Societies for Psychi- 
cal Eesearch. Perhaps this last has been its greatest mission 
to the world. 

Prom that time doiwn to the present this whole range of 
phenomena has been taken out of the exclusive control of the 
ignorant and unscrupulous, and has been seriously studied 
and examined at the hands of scientific men in all lands. 
There is profound significance in the fact that men of the 
scholarly standing of Maeterlinck and James, Lodge and Hys- 
lop, and scores of others who might be mentioned, have 
deemed the problem of man's future existence of sufficient im- 
portance to devote, if not their lives, at least so large a por- 
tion of their time to its earnest study. We shall deal more in 
detail with this significance in a later chapter. It should be 
a ground of encouragement, however, to all earnest seekers for 
light, that men — - and many women, too — of such character 
and ability are giving of their best to-day to the solution of 
the old problem. This fact alone registers a distinct gain 
both for truth and for human needs. 

But again, the work done has served to effectually remove 
the stigTLia that formerly attached to the whole realm of the 
so-called " occult '' in human experience, and has elevated the 
problem of human destiny to a new and higher plane of dig- 
nity and importance. When the Societies were first formed 
to investigate these phenomena, they were met with ridicule 
and opposition from practically the great majority of the 
leaders in the scientific world. The Churches generally were 
scandalized that science should presume to seek for " evi- 



STATUS OF PSYCHIC EESEAECH 93 

dence " in what was so clearly intended to be a matter for 
faith alone. The early investigators took their scientific 
lives, as it were, in their hands, as they went forth to explore 
this new territory. 

The opposition has by no means ceased, and in certain quar- 
ters both in orthodox science and in orthodox religion, the 
ridicule and the criticism are still to be heard. But to the 
credit of the courage of the early pioneers in this '' unpopu- 
lar ^' field and of those who have come after them, there is a 
much more tolerant attitude on the part of both science and re- 
ligion, to speak generally, than ever before. The subject is 
no longer taboo in intelligent circles as formerly, and it is 
possible for one to evince an interest in psychic phenomena to- 
day wdthout the fear of losing his respectability. In fact, the 
danger to-day is that the subject is becoming almost too pop- 
ular, and for many people it seems to be more a curious fad 
than the object of careful and painstaking study. 

But the struggle against the unpopularity and disrepute 
into which the whole subject had fallen has now been won, so 
that one can honestly express an interest in his soul, and even 
dare to inquire whether death does end all, without losing the 
respect of his fellows. 

Another tremendous gain has been the amassing by these 
Societies, through the last thirty years, of a vast amount of 
data bearing directly or indirectly on the main problem. 
This material has been painstakingly verified, carefully clas- 
sified and put in definite order. The field of exploration has 
been clearly marked oif, and the work to be done in the future 
has been definitely outlined and systematically planned. In 
fact, the preliminary and necessary work in the founding of 
a new science has been done, and well done, in preparation 
for future growth and progress in further discoveries. Just 
what this preliminary work has involved in a field where 
everything was in chaos and confusion, is best revealed in that 



94 THE ]^EW LIGHT 0]^ IMMORTALITY 

moniimental work bj F. W. H. Myers, entitled, ^^ Human 
Personality. '^ 

All of this has naturally taken much time and serves to ex- 
plain in part why more definite " results '' have not yet been 
disclosed. And yet, to the student in this field, it is amazing 
how much ground has been covered in the short space of a gen- 
eration of time. Let us remember that, prior to the forma- 
tion of these Societies, none of this verified and classified data 
was in existence; only a strange and mysterious mass of con- 
flicting stories, reports, rumors and conjectures — all of 
which had first to be run to earth before the actual facts 
could be known, and thus the real work be begun. 

The range of phenomena involved has been proven to be 
much wider than was originally supposed, and this consti- 
tutes another accomplishment for psychic research. At the 
outset, telepathy, apparitions and mediumship seemed to of- 
fer the chief channels for investigation. But gradually many 
other phenomena have come to be included, as bearing on the 
subjects of inquiry. So that the territory appropriated by 
psychic research has finally come to comprise all phenom.ena 
that might be explained by hypersesthesia, whether visual, 
auditory or tactual, all forms of hysteria, the nature and lim- 
its of guessing and chance coincidence; hypnotism, clairvoy- 
ance, clairaudience, psychometry; hallucinations, whether 
subjective or veridical; apparitions, whether visual or audi- 
tory; premonitions; mediiunistic phenomena of all types; 
automatic writing in all forms; the physical phenomena of 
spiritualism, including raps or knockings, table-tippings and 
telekinesis, or the movement of physical bodies without con- 
tact; all phenomena connected with cases of double personal- 
ity ; dreams ; as well as the so-called materializations of com- 
mon fame. 

As we have seen, not all of these are of equal value in their 
direct bearing upon the problem of survival, still, indirectly, 



STATUS OF PSYCHIC EESEAKCH 95 

they all lead to a better understanding of tlie inner life of 
man — whether its true nature proves to be transitory or per- 
manent. It is the very breadth of the field covered by these 
complex and seemingly innumerable phenomena that also 
helps to postpone the ascertaining of more definite ^^ results " 
for survival. 

Then there is the commonness of the phenomena^ as James 
points out. To one inexperienced in such investigations 
there is the almost universal notion that psychic phenomena 
are very unusual and exceptional things, to be found only 
among a very limited class of ignorant or " queer " people. 
But the work of these societies has demonstrated that they are 
found everywhere in some form, and are common to all classes 
of people and all stages of culture. 

While it is true that the pronounced psychic type is com- 
paratively unusual, and the clear-cut, so-called " gifts of me- 
diumship '' are only met with now and then, still there is 
scarcely any one, from the hard-headed, practical business 
man, to the most conservative and orthodox type of woman, 
who will not, if caught in some unguarded moment of con- 
fidence, relate in bated breath some '^ strange experience " 
that once came to them, and which they have never been able 
to explain. The author has listened to scores of such re- 
citals from people whom he never suspected of possessing 
any such " psychic " powers. 

The very wide-spread practice, since the coming of the 
war, of automatic writing, utterly regardless now of either its 
meaning or value, by people both old and young, cultivated 
and ignorant, who never dreamed of exercising such powers 
before, would indicate clearly that certain forms of psychic 
power, at least, formerly supposed to be limited to the very 
few, are possessed in some degree by many people, and the 
clear inference is that they might be cultivated and devel- 
oped by practically all, if so desired. 



96 THE NEW LIGHT ON IMMORTALITY 

All of whicli goes to prove that many of the phenomena, 
though not all, far from being abnormal and exceptional, are 
perfectly natural and normal expressions of powers, whether 
psychic or spiritual, that operate in and through human na- 
ture. That they are more highly developed in some than in 
others, does not in any sense prove their abnormal character. 
Many who have cruelly suffered in the past from being ac- 
cused of " witchcraft,'' or '' the evil eye," or " black magic," 
or ^' devil possession," were only exercising natural powers 
which, while not at all understood either by themselves or 
others, are now known to be the expression of forces normal 
to human nature. 

This, in itself, is an inestimable gain. It has already 
transferred from the realm of the old " supernatural," many 
hitherto unexplained phenomena and placed them in the 
realm of the perfectly natural. And if it should eventually 
be proven that the spiritistic hypothesis is true, then all that 
man has called the '^ supernatural " in the past will indeed 
have become the '' natural." The old distinction about which 
so many controversies have raged will disappear, and the age- 
old dualism will give place to a higher synthesis. 

The tremendous complexity involved in the problem has 
also been revealed more and more clearly as the work of the 
societies has progressed. As Professor Sidgwick testifies, it 
was generally felt that the investigation on the part of sci- 
entifically trained men would lead, with reasonable prompti- 
tude, to very definite results. But as the work went on, as 
more minds became interested in the subject and as the evi- 
dence of all sorts accumulated, the mystery of the problem 
became deeper and more complex. While many questions 
were answered positively, new questions kept constantly aris- 
ing, for which there seemed to be no satisfactory answer. 
Theories, conjectures, hypotheses steadily multiplied, but 



STATUS OF PSYCHIC EESEAECH 97 

still the clear and positive proof seemed forever to elude the 
searchers. 

While some professed to have reached conviction, and many 
others persevered in their search for the truth, there were 
those naturally who became discouraged and almost felt that 
the problem was utterly incapable of solution. There are 
so many different elements entering into the problem, so much 
uncertainty as to the limits of man's psychic powers, so many 
difficulties, and often, the utter impossibility of imposing test 
conditions, so many opportunities for conscious fraud and so 
large a chance for unconscious self-deception, that only the 
fully trained and thoroughly expert mind is capable of actu- 
ally appreciating the complexities of psychic research. 

As James says : '^ I have been tempted at times to be- 
lieve that the Creator has eternally intended this departanent 
of nature to remain baffling, to prompt our curiosities and 
hopes and suspicions all in equal measure, so that, although 
ghosts and clairvoyances, and raps and messages from spirits 
are always seeming to exist and can never be fully explained 
away, they also seem never to be susceptible of full corrobora- 
tion/' 

But it is James also who admits in the same passage that 
it is impossible to believe that the Creator has put any big 
array of phenomena into the world merely to mock and defy 
the human mind ; '' so my deeper belief is that we psychical 
researchers have been too precipitate with our hopes, and that 
we must expect to mark progress, not by quarter centuries, 
but by half or whole centuries." 

These words reveal the truly scientific spirit — patience in 
investigation, unwillingness to accept inadequate evidence, 
caution in formulating any conclusion until all the facts are 
in, and through it all, the sure confidence that eventually the 



98 THE NEW LIGHT OE" IMMORTALITY 

mystery will be dispelled and tlie tnitli found. In just the 
measure that they possess this spirit, will all intelligent seek- 
ers for more light on the old problem be saved from credulous 
gullibility on the one hand, and from reactionary unbelief on 
the other. There is no place for dogmatism in any direction, 
with prevailing conditions in this field as they are to-day. 

The elimination of fraud as the sole cause, and the proving 
of the genuineness of many of these phenomena is still an- 
other great accomplisment. This, naturally, was the first 
step if any progToss at all was to be made. The quite general 
feeling on the part of most intelligent people w^as that fraud 
or trickery would explain all so-called psychic mysteries. 
Herrmann and other professional magicians made their stand- 
ing offers to duplicate on the stage any of the ^' tricks of the 
medium " ; and it was popularly inferred that if the magician 
could produce by confessed trickery the same kind of phe- 
nomena exhibited by the medium, the medium must also in- 
evitably and always employ similar trickery. They failed to 
see that while some of the phenomena on the stage and in the 
medium's cabinet might be the same in kind, it was at least 
possible that they proceeded from different causes. 

This is just what the investigators have proved. Many 
mediums have been detected in fraud and their trickery has 
been exposed. But in many other cases, under the most rigid 
test conditions that the ingenuity of scientifically trained 
minds have been able to devise, these investigators have 
frankly admitted that the elements of fraud or trickery did 
not, and could not enter in. The sam.e is ti'ue of many of 
the ^^ communications " received through mediums, and of the 
various other forms of psychic phenomena. 

Those who still claim that it is all '' bosh,'' and that some 
form of fraud or deception underlies all these phenomena — 
people who have never given a single moment's serious study 
to the question — must have a very poor idea of the mental 



STATUS OF PSYCHIC KESEAECH 99 

integrity and moral honesty of the scientific investigators 
who have given t)wenty or thirty years tO' this special v^ork, 
and who confess themselves as absolutely convinced of the 
genuineness of the phenomena, even though admitting frankly 
the constant danger of fraud or deception, whether conscious 
or unconscious. The day has forever gone by for really intel- 
ligent minds, however, when fraud can longer be adduced as 
the explanation of all psychic phenomena. 

Still a last conclusion to which all students of the subject 
have come is the recognition of the presence of something 
supernormal in many phases of the phenomena, e. g. com- 
munications, automatic v^iting, etc. This seems to be the 
quite general conviction at which investigators have arrived. 
But by " supernormal/' they in no sense mean '' supernat- 
ural " in the old sense. What they mean is the presence of 
knowledge that cannot be traced to the ordinary sources of in- 
formation, namely, the senses. If telepathy be accepted as 
scientifically proved, as many do accept it, this fact alone 
means a revolution in our ideas, for it nieans that mind can 
communicate with mind, altogether apart from the senses, 
through which we have believed all our knowledge was de- 
rived. 

•James and many others are frank in their admission of the 
presence of such supernormal knoiwledge in the case of many 
well-known and rigidly tested mediums. " In really strong 
mediums," he says, " this knowledge seems to be abundant, 
though it is usually spotty, capricious and unconnected." 

This is as far as the psychic researchers are willing to go, 
except of course, in the case of those who have become con- 
vinced that this ^' supernormal " knowledge is the result of 
the activity of discarnate intelligences. And this brings us to 
the very crax of the problem, as it presents itself to present- 
day investigators. It also clearly suggests the possibilities of 
future work in this field. 



CHAPTER VII 

FUTUEE POSSIBILITIES AND A WARNING 

" How often have men tlms feared that Nature's wonders would 
be degraded by being closelier looked into. How often, again, have 
they learned that the truth was higher than their imagination; 
and that it is man's work, but never Nature's, which to be magnifi- 
cent must remain unknown." — F. W. H. Myers. 

In considering the possibilities for the future of psychic 
investigations there is much room, for speculation; but this 
would be purely a matter of personal opinion and would have 
no value save that of possible suggestions as to what may yet 
be accomplished along these lines. What we desire to do, is 
to state as clearly as possible the problem as it presents itself 
to the psychic investigator of to-day, to point out the possible 
explanations of the phenomena which psychic researchers gen- 
erally admit to be genuine, and to indicate some of the condi- 
tions that may lead eventually to the general acceptance of 
some one of the explanations now offered, or to the discovery 
of some new explanation that 'will still better and more ade- 
quately interpret all the facts. 

The main problem before the genuine investigator to-day is 
the one question: Does consciousness survive death? This 
is primary to all else, and much more fundamental than any 
other question that may be asked. The trained student is not 
especially interested in "spiritual" ot " astral " bodies, in 
the conditions of life beyond the grave, in what the departed 
" spirits " do — what they eat or how they dress or the char- 
acter of their habitations — or even the conditions under 

100 



FUTUEE POSSIBILITIES 101 

which they may be able to communicate with the living. It 
is perfectly possible that the fact of survival may be proved 
entirely apart from any satisfactory evidence that the dead 
do communicate with the living, through the scientific es- 
tablishment of telepathy or some kindred fact, proving that 
mind can indeed communicate with mind entirely apart from 
the bodily senses. 

Many books have come, and are constantly coming, from 
the press, filled to the brim with so-called information about 
the life into which the dead have departed, the conditions of 
their existence and the nature of their employments. But it 
must be clearly evident to every intelligent person that all 
this " information,'' however much it may be desired, is alto- 
gether irrelevant and unconvincing until first of all the fact 
is established indisputably, that human consciousness does 
persist beyond the grave. Such '^ information " may be, and 
often is, very interesting, and it may even turn out eventually 
to be true, or at least, some of it may be discovered to har- 
monize with the facts of the other life; but until the prior 
fact is unmistakably proven, it can have no evidential value 
for human survival whatsoever. 

For let it be remembered that if one's nearest and dearest 
should purport to communicate through some medium or 
through some form of automatic writing, and should discourse 
however learnedly and beautifully about the conditions of 
existence in the '' spiritual world," it would possess not one 
grain of evidence for continued existence, for the simple 
reason that such a communication would contain nothing 
whatever by means of which the messenger might be identi- 
fied as being the purported loved one. For all one Jcnoivs, a 
message of such a character might proceed from the mind of 
the medium or from one's own sub-conscious being. 

In such cases, the only real evidence is that which reveals 
the mental states of the messenger in such a way as that they 



102 THE NEW LIGHT OlST IMMOETALITY 

may he known and recognized, beyond the shadow of a doubt, 
to be those of the one departed. Intimate, personal and 
often very trivial things serve thus to identify, as glittering 
generalities never do. And even then, the evidence is not 
convincing until it has been proved that such mental states 
or intimate knowledge could not have been obtained through 
some form of telepathy or mind-reading, or in some more ob- 
vious fashion. 

The real problem then, is whether this stream of conscious- 
ness or particular personality has survived death and still 
exists in independence of the physical organism, regardless 
of how it survives or the nature of its present existence. 
Whatever personal identity may be, 'we know it is not ac- 
cessible to sense perception. It is as transcendental as atoms, 
ether waves, ions, electrons and other supersensible realities 
of physical science, if indeed there are such. 

The solution of this problem lies in the collecting of suffi- 
cient evidence to prove that human consciousness does con- 
tinue after death. The chief difficulty in the way of its 
solution lies in the strength of the hypothesis that conscious- 
ness is a function of the brain and requires some such struc- 
ture for its existence. Indeed the sensory and materialistic 
conception i^ so strong that there are many people who con- 
fess frankly that they cannot even imagine how consciousness 
can survive without a brain. 

James's hypothesis of the transmissive function of the 
brain, in place of the commonly accepted productive theory, 
is one way to escape the difficulty. Or it may turn out that 
both hypotheses are wrong, in the light of new discoveries. 
For it must be remembered that consciousness as a function 
of the brain, in the sense that it is produced by the brain, is 
itself an unproved hypothesis. It is simply used by the ma- 
jority of scientists as a good working hypothesis, in lieu of 
anything better. 



FITTUEE POSSIBILITIES 103 

When one makes sense perception the sole criterion of 
truth, it is natural to make this assumption, especially when 
all normal experience shows the constant association of con- 
sciousness with a physical organism, and reveals no trace of 
it when the body is dissolved. But the absence of convincing 
evidence for survival is not evidence for the absence of sur- 
vival; hence, only normal experience seems to favor ma- 
terialism. Supernormal experience, if proved, suggests a 
very different interpretation of it; it brings us into contact 
with the supersensible. In normal life, consciousness in all 
its forms is a supersensible reality, even when we suppose it 
to be wholly dependent on the physical organism. 

The true psychical researcher refuses to believe, as yet, 
that materialism has said the last word on the problem ; he is 
simply resolved to be as skeptical about materialism as the 
materialists are about spiritualism. This is the only atti- 
tude that enables one to discover the illusions that have af- 
fected most of our thinking on this subject. If people gen- 
erally would only try to understand what psychic research is 
aiming at, and so disregard the question of a " spiritual " 
body, or the quasi-material conception of the soul, they would 
see that the researcher is only trying, at the present stage of 
investigation, to ascertain if personal consciousness survives 
as a fact, and not how it survives, and thus they would find 
the problem very much simplified. 

This main problem of the researcher may be stated in a 
little different way. Death is only slightly different from 
paralysis or catalepsy, according to appearances. It involves 
the permanent lapse of consciousness so far as our normal 
observation is concerned, whereas, in the other cases, con- 
sciousness ceases to function and, apparently, for the time 
being, is non-existent, until it again begins to function within 
the body. In the case of death, the body also ceases to func- 
tion and in time is dissolved. The materialist assumes that 



104 THE NEW LIGHT O^ IMMORTALITY 

personality or consciousness disappears with it, and can 
never reappear. Believing as lie does that personality is a 
function of the organism, he consistently assumes that it does 
not exist anywhere after the death of the body. But he does 
not Jcnoiu directly that this is a fact ; he simply assumes it to 
be such. He never saw personality, nor have any of us seen 
it, as we see our own bodies or the bodies of others ; and the 
materialist assumes that the only way to know anything di- 
rectly is through sense perception. 

In catalepsy and paralysis, personality or consciousness 
seems to have disappeared. The recovery of normal con- 
sciousness in such cases shows that there it suffered only a 
lapse, followed later by the resumption of organic functions. 
But there is no such resumption of functions after death, and 
the materialist therefore concludes that consciousness has be- 
come non-existent, like digestion, circulation, secretion and 
other functions of the organism. These undoubtedl}^ disap- 
pear never to reappear; and if personality is a similar func- 
tion of the body, it too must disappear forever. Since we 
have no direct knowledge of this personality in others., even 
in life, and since we cannot from normal experience infer its 
continued existence after death, we have to fall back upon 
facts derived from seemingly abnormal conditions or processes 
different from sensory experience, if we are tO' infer its sur- 
vival. 

'Now psychic research is occupied primarily with the ef- 
fort to find the facts from which we can justly infer the 
survival of personality. As we have already pointed out, 
fraud, sub-conscious actions, chance coincident, guessing and 
telepathy must be excluded as explanations before we can 
accept any given evidence as proof of survival. 

Assuming that this exclusion has been effected in any case, 
as in veridical apparitions and test mediumistic phenomena, 
we can only infer that personality has continued to exist after 



rUTUEE POSSIBILITIES 105 

death, as we know it existed in paralysis and catalepsy when 
we had supposed it destroyed. Death has interrupted its 
causal action in the world ; therefore, unless at some point it 
can resume that causal action on or through the living, we 
should have to remain without scientific evidence for its con- 
tinuance after death. 

This is why it seems clear that if the scientific evidence 
for human survival is ever to he found so as to be generally 
accepted by mankind, it will be through the work and by the 
methods of psychic research. We are indebted to Doctor 
Hyslop for the foregoing line of reasoning which we have 
sought to paraphrase so as to give his argument its full ef- 
fectiveness. 

This being the problem in its main essentials, and admit- 
ting that the investigations carried on thus far have suc- 
ceeded, in many cases at least, in eliminating all conceivable 
chance of fraud, and proving the phenomena to be genuine 
facts, what are the possible explanations of these most in- 
teresting and seemingly mysterious facts ? In general, the 
hypotheses adduced by the workers in this field to explain 
these facts fall into one of two different classes. 

( 1 ) They may all eventually come to be explained on some 
theory of telepathy or mind-reading, or through the activity 
of psychic powers in man, whose nature or operations are not 
yet understood. On this theory, all these phenomena, even 
the most mysterious and baffling at present, would ultimately 
be reduced to purely psychic phenomena, with which dis- 
carnate intelligences have nothing whatever to do. This 
theory may be stated in various different ways, but the above 
version constitutes the essence of them all. Of course, if 
this should eventually turn out to be the true theory that 
adequately accounts for all the facts, we should then have 
to admit frankly that psychic research had not led us a single 
step nearer to the scientific proof of human survival. To be 



106 THE NEW LIGHT ON IMMORTALITY 

sure, it would liave shed nuich new light on the mysterious 
nature and undreamed of powers of the inner life of man, 
but the great question of human destiny, so far as we can see, 
would remain as deeply shrouded in mystery as ever. 

(2) At least some of these genuine phenomena can only 
be explained on the theory of discarnate intelligence or in- 
telligences, that are actually able, and that do, under certain 
conditions, communicate in one way or another, v/ith those 
living in the physical body. This theory does not require 
that all forms of genuine psychic phenomena must be ex- 
plained in this way. Many of these phenomena may indeed 
prove to be purely psychic, that is, due to forces resident in 
incarnate man. But it does insist that among the phenomena 
there is a certain residuum of facts, large or small, that can- 
not only not be explained on the telepathic hypothesis, but 
that no other possible hypothesis can adequately explain ex- 
cept that of discarnate intelligences. If this second theory 
should be proven true and come to be generally accepted by 
science, then indeed it could be truly said that the world had 
at last found the solution of the age-old problem, and that the 
scientific proof of survival after death had finally been es- 
tablished. 

It has already been pointed out how greatly divided are 
the ranks of present-day psychic investigators on these two 
general hypotheses. There are those who are fully per- 
suaded in their own minds that the second theory has already 
been scientifically proved. There are those who waver and 
hesitate between accepting either one as the correct hypo- 
thesis, preferring still to call themselves researchers, and to 
await the disclosure of further facts before committing 
themselves, at least publicly, to any conclusion. And there 
are some who are still contending vigorously that the tele- 
pathic theory is the only really tenable one. 

Outside the ranks of the actual psychic investigators them- 



FUTUEE POSSIBILITIES 107 

selves, it is probably true that the predominance of opinion 
among scientists generally, where either side is taken, would 
be in favor of the first theory; although it must be admitted 
that the opinions of those who know nothing, at first-hand, of 
the phenomena and who have given no time to their study, 
cannot possess much value. It is this condition of divided 
feeling as to the true explanation of these genuine facts, this 
lack of any general consensus of opinion among scientific 
minds as yet, that makes it impossible to claim that definite 
results have been reached as to actual and acceptable proof 
for either hypothesis. 

But very fortunately, the field was never more widely open 
for further research than to-day, the number of trained in- 
vestigators is steadily increasing, there is an attitude of 
greater tolerance toward the subject on the part of the public 
generally than ever before, any day may see the discovery of 
new facts that may swing the pendulum of conviction to one 
view or the other, and at least, the utter chaos and confusion 
that once existed in this realm of phenomena has given place 
to an order where definite hypotheses have been able to 
emerge. As time goes on, these now opposing theories must 
continue the struggle in the arena of discussion and con- 
troversy, either until one of them wins the victory over the 
other, or until both are superseded by some new and better 
theory. 

In case the telepathic theory should eventually force the 
surrender of the spiritistic hypothesis, however, there are 
many who feel that the search for the proof of survival need 
not necessarily be regarded as lost. 

This much is clear: If not in this generation, sometime 
eventually the truth will be found. And though it is recog- 
nized that the time element must play a larger part in the 
ascertaining of the truth than was at first supposed, still the 
day must come at length when this, whole' range of phenomena 



108 THE NEW LIGHT ON IMMORTALITY 

will be understood by science, and when it will not longer 
present the baffling mystery that it does to so many at present. 

Tbere are certain conditions existing to-day and that will 
be increasingly present as time goes on, that did not hold true 
in the earlier days of these investigations and that promise 
new hope for future investigation. Eor example, every year 
now, more and more of those who have been known as psychic 
researchers are crossing " the great divide." They are men 
trained by long experience in all the intricacies of this special 
kind of investigation; they know all its difficulties and its 
complexities; they also know from their experience on this 
side, just what constitute test conditions to the worker here; 
in addition, they know the character of evidence that would 
be most sure to furnish the earthly investigator with the satis- 
factory proof of human survival. 

'Now if human consciousness does indeed survive, it can 
readily be seen what this means for psychic research. On 
the " other side " there is gradually gathering a steadily 
increasing group of those who are trained and have become 
expert in this special subject. The natural supposition would 
be, if consciousness and memory persist as the spiritistic 
hypothesis contends, that these '^ spirits " would make every 
effort to get into communication with their fellow-workers 
still left on this side of life. And if they succeed, with their 
knowledge of the kind of evidence needed to furnish the real 
proof, the assumption is that, in time, better than all others, 
they may be able to bring, in their communications, just this 
particular kind of evidence required to definitely solve the 
problem. 

This does not seem like an unreasonable assumption, pro- 
vided of course the spiritistic hypothesis is the true one, and 
communication with the departed is possible. It is well 
known that men like Myers and. Hodgson, and it is reported, 
James and Hyslop, as well as others, arranged with their 



FUTUEE POSSIBILITIES 109 

friends or colleagues before their deaths, to fulfill certain 
tests agreed upon, in case they were able to return. Many 
communications, purporting to have come from these very 
men, have been received by various mediums. They have 
brought conviction to some investigators, while others seem 
to have been left in doubt as to their genuineness. But in 
time these trained ^^ spirits '' may be able to clearly fulfill 
the tests agreed upon so as to bring conviction to all. It is 
here again that patience may be the prime condition of fur- 
ther knowledge. 

The gradually recognized possibility of what many call 
normal telepathy, or unconscious mind-reading, from sur- 
vivors or sitters in the circle, raises hesitation in many minds 
about accepting such messages as irrefragable evidence of 
continued personal existence ; and to overcome this difficulty, 
it is demanded that facts shall be given which are unknown 
to any one present, and which can only subsequently be veri- 
fied. Communications of this occasional and exceptional 
kind are what are called by psychic researchers, " more spe- 
cifically evidential " ; and time, and perhaps good fortune, 
may be required for their adequate reception and critical 
appreciation. 

The more recent development of an elaborate scheme of 
^^ cross-correspondence," entered upon since the death of spe- 
cifically experienced and critical investigators of the Psychi- 
cal Society, who were familiar with all these difiiculties and 
who have taken strong and most ingenious means to overcome 
them, seems to be the method holding out most hope for se- 
curing adequate evidence to-day. To many it has already 
made the matter of proof exceedingly crucial, if not alto- 
gether final. ^^ The only alternative, in the best cases, is to 
imagine a sort of supernormal mischievousness, so elaborately 
misleading that it would have to be stigmatized as vicious or 
even diabolical." 



110 THE ISTEW LIGHT OlST IMMOETALITY 

This metiiod of cross-correspondence is so complex and 
teclinical that it is impossible to explain its workings to the 
lay mind, and it can hardly be appreciated or understood by 
the non-studious; but it has already furnished some of the 
most convincing evidence for survival yet obtained. In a 
word — though it in no sense explains the intricacies of 
the method — cross-correspondence involves the completion 
through a second psychic of a message obtained through an- 
otherj or an increment that is relevant and not given at the 
first station. It is a method that can only be employed by 
highly trained experts, and it serves to illustrate — a fact 
not appreciated by many — how far the real researcher has 
gone beyond the ouija board and physical phenomena in his 
inquiry for convincing evidence. The possibilities of this 
more recent mode of research are limitless. 

Then it is not inconceivable that, as time goes on, there 
will continue to be a collecting of cases and experiences even 
more striking and far more evidential than anything that is 
narrated in '' Raymond. '' The results of automatic writing, 
such as have already been given to the world by William T. 
Stead, Elsa Barker, Mrs. Currau, Margaret Cameron, May 
Wright Sewall and many others, will also doubtless continue 
to multiply, thus helping to increase the cumulative evidence 
for some sort of a solution of the problem. 

It is, again, not unthinkable that with a return of a more 
spiritual conception of life, and also under the influence of 
the constantly increasing accumulation of facts in this field, 
the " intellectual pride and obstinacy '' which still stand for 
many in the way of a just appreciation of the significance of 
psychic phenomena, may gradually give way to a deeper 
spiritual perception and clearer insight, which, in turn, may 
make possible the obtaining of a class of evidence to which 
the world as a whole is now quite deaf and blind. 

Still another possibility, is the coming of a new and 



FUTUEE POSSIBILITIES 111 

broader attitude on the part of both science and philosophy 
toward the universe and toward life. If the pendulum 
should one day swing from the purely mechanistic and ma- 
terialistic trend of so much of the current science and philoso- 
phy toward a more sane and idealistic position; if science 
would only include in its study all of the facts, those of the 
inner life as well as those of the outer world ; and if philoso- 
phy would resolve once again to take a more comprehensive 
view of reality than is to be found in its most modern phases, 
then indeed there would be new grounds for hope that more 
complete justice would be done to human needs and aspira- 
tions. 

These last reflections may be in the nature of pure specu- 
lations, but whatever their value, it still remains true that 
the future is big with promise of new discoveries along all 
lines, from whose benefits it is safe to assume the spiritual 
nature of man will not be excluded. 

A final word must be said, and that by way of warning. 
It may not be heeded, but it needs to be said nonetheless. 
With the steady widening of interest in the subject during 
the war, and especially since, all kinds and conditions of men 
and women in this country, in England and, we are told, in 
the continental countries, have " gone in " for various forms 
of psychic investigations, and in almost incredible numbers. 
The ouija board manufacturers have done a thriving busi- 
ness, the mediiuns are working overtime, while the devotees 
of automatic writing are legion. 

With many, this " new interest " amounts practically to 
an obsession; with still more it has become a fashionable 
habit, while with others it is only a curious fad. It has been 
reported that in many of the colleges, studies are being neg- 
lected for the ouija board, and the writer knows of loyal 
church members who are devoting the time on Sundays, 
formerly spent at church services, in ^' getting " automatic 



112 THE ISTEW LIGHT O'N IMMORTALITY 

writing in tlieir own homes. In it.« more superficial phases, 
this popular interest in psychic investigations really amounts 
to a wave of hysteria sweeping through the world, to he ex- 
plained in part, but not wholly, by the war-psychology. 

Under such conditions, too great emphasis cannot be placed 
upon the fact that the work of psychic investigation is pre- 
eminently the work for trained, scientific minds and not for 
amateurs. It is especially the task of the expert psychologist, 
for the particular phenomena it deals with belong to his spe- 
cial field of study. Only such minds are capable of dealing 
intelligently with the peculiar difficulties and the profound 
complexities of such problems. All others are only playing 
with something they do not understand, however serious they 
may think themselves to be — something that, in the nature 
of things, they are utterly incapable of understanding with- 
out this expert^ training. And thus to play unintelligently 
with mysterious forces, the a-b-c of which one does not even 
understand, regardless of whether they proceed from sub- 
conscious depths within one's own being or from discarnate 
intelligence, is a serious thing, and may lead to incalculable 
harm in more ways than one. It is difficult to explain all 
that this warning involves, unless one is experienced along 
these lines. 

There is no question but that there are many intelligent 
people who are sufficiently well-balanced mentally, and pos- 
sessed of a strong enough fund of commonsense, not to be 
carried off their feet or to lose the true perspective of things 
by such " experimenting." For these, there may be little 
or no danger, though, as has been said, without the special 
mental training required for this work, the '' results '' they 
obtain will be of little real value to themselves or to others, 
simply because they lack the proper mental equipment to 
rightly interpret these '^ results.'' And the whole question 
is just this : What do these mysterious facts actually mean ? 



FUTUEE POSSIBILITIES 113 

But the tragic fact is tliat there are many more who do 
lose their mental, and oftentimes, their moral balance under 
the influence of these strange forces. One does not have to 
step out of the immediate circle of his acquaintances to find 
those — men and women — who have become so absorbed by 
their '^ experiments," as to lose their grasp on daily duties, 
become neglectful of immediate tasks, and become blind, per- 
haps unconsciously, both to the obligations and the oppor- 
tunities involved in the most sacred and intimate relations 
of life. Such cases are known to all. 

If one's thought of the future life enables one to live a 
stronger, braver, richer, truer and more unselfish life here 
and now, it is a good thing. On the other hand, if it tends 
to make one more self-absorbed, careless and neglectful of 
those duties that lie nearest, if, in any sense, it subtracts or 
alienates one from the immediate interests, opportunities, and 
obligations of the life that now is, it is always a harmful 
thing. 

For most inexperienced and untrained investigators, the 
final result of this '' experimenting " is either one of two 
things. If they are credulous and easily influenced, they 
become foolishly gullible, swallowing bait, hook and line, and 
believing everything they see and hear at its seeming face 
value. On the other hand, if there is more of the ^' natural 
doubter " in them, they soon become disgusted at their in- 
ability to fathom the mysteries, and eventually react, some- 
times violently, against all belief in a future existence, and 
often in religion itself. Both positions are unjustifiable and 
unnecessary. But, nevertheless, these are the common re- 
sults, because so few people are trained to examine intelli- 
gently the facts or to discriminate carefully as to their true 
meaning. And thus psychic phenomena and the whole sub- 
ject of survival are brought into disrepute, and the true value 
of these investigations is discredited. 



114 THE E"EW LIGHT 0^ IMMOETALITY 

1 A still more dangerous influence follows from the mistaken 
I notion that mediumship is a desirable thing to possess. The 
I writer has heard many women and even young girls speak 
/ quite honestly of their great desire to cultivate in themselves 
the " gifts of mediumship/' as if these powers marked neces- 
sarily a higher stage in " spiritual '' development. ITothing 
could be farther from the truth. The powers of medium- 
ship have nothing whatever to do with true spiritual life. 
We find them oftentimes associated with degraded and im- 
moral personalities; and it is not difficult to-day to under- 
stand why this should be so. 

A real ^' medium '' is one who, for the time being, is under 
the control of some other force than his or her own conscious 
will. It may be a psychic force or it may be a spiritual 
intelligence, sometimes it even may be something of both. 
But the essential thing is that the medium has surrendered 
conscious self-control, in order to become a " medium.'' Few 
people realize what this involves. The fundamental, in- 
alienable right of every being is to preserve his own will 
inviolate ; it is his fundamental duty as well. Any weaken- 
ing of one's self-conscious powers of volition, any surrender 
of one's self-control to any other personal or impersonal 
forces, even for the time being, always tends toward the 
weakening and deterioration of one's own mental life and 
•'moral character. 
i Conscientious physicians who practice the use of hypnotism 
iXi. their treatment of patients have learned this from experi- 
ence, and no longer employ this means except in extreme 
cases; many of them have abandoned it altogether on the 
ground that its benefits are far outweighed by its evil results. 
ISTow mediumship is only a form of hypnotism, in which the 
control of oneself is deliberately given over, temporarily, not 
to a reputable physician who understands what he is doing, 
but to a force or power which is not yet clearly understood. 



FUTUKE POSSIBILITIES 115 

It may be a force that rises out of the depths^ of one's sub- 
conscious being. But we know to-day that there are evil 
tendencies and dangerous influences and, sometimes, even 
what we call ^^ dual '' or " split personalities " lurking in those 
mysterious depths, along with many good and desirable things. 
And to surrender one's conscious self-control in trance con- 
ditions, or in any other form of mediumship, including auto- 
matic writing where one must at least cultivate passivity, is 
to fling wide the door for the entrance into one's inner life 
of all these strange forces both good and bad. If the evil 
forces are in the ascendency, and the practice of mediumship 
is persisted in, it usually leads to what is recognized to-day as 
" obsession," and very often results in moral degradation or 
mental insanity. 

The statement has been made that fifty per cent, of the 
inmates of the insane asylums are there because of uncon- 
scious mediumship which has left them the tragic victims of 
all sorts of strange and alien psychic forces. Conscious self- 
control is the one and only safe gTiardian of the citadel of 
the inner life from all such malign influences both within 
and without. 

If, on the other hand, the power that controls in medium- 
ship is a discamate intelligence, the danger is not eliminated 
thereby. Eor all kinds of mentalities and characters, in all 
stages of development, are constantly passing through the 
portals of death, and there is no reason to think that, in their 
essential traits, they undergo any sudden or miraculous 
change. So that if this be the true hypothesis, the surrender 
of one's self-control to discarnate intelligences means, once 
again, flinging the door wide open for all sorts of beings — 
good, bad and indifferent spirits — to enter and take pos- 
session of one's inner life. As some one has truly put it, 
it is the same thing as going to bed at night in the great 
city, where all kinds of characters abound, and leaving the 



116 THE NEW LIGHT OIST IMMORTALITY 

front door wide open. It is possible that no one with evil 
intent might pass that way or enter the house ; and yet again, 
such an one might enter the defenseless house to rob or even 
to kill ; at any rate it would be taking a chance. 

The essential thing to realize is that the surrender of one's 
self-control, under any conditions, to another person or force, 
whether good or bad, is always a most undesirable thing to 
do — it is nothing less than a crime against oneself. Every- 
where else in life we hold the ideal of mental self-poise and 
self-control to be the very highest attainable, then why should 
it be surrendered in the quest of truth or a higher spiritual 
development ? 

These considerations may seem quite meaningless or be- 
side the mark to those who have had no experience in this 
field. But if the reader desires to pursue this line of reason- 
ing farther, he is referred to a significant book, entitled, '' The 
Great Psychological Crime,'^ by T. K., in which the author, 
while fully persuaded of the facts of survival and of spirit 
communication, designates the method of mediumship as al- 
together negative and totally destructive, and therefore never 
to be cultivated in oneself. He also suggests what he calls 
the positive or constructive method of arriving at the truth. 

In the case of those in sorrow, who are longing for some 
real evidence of the survival of loved ones, it is difficult to 
give these warnings as emphatically as they deserve to be 
made to people generally. Circumstances must alter cases, 
and the type of mind of the individual seeking comfort and 
light will have much to do with it. Only to all such, one 
would say: Be cautious. Select your medium, if you go 
to one, very carefully, and only after you have ascertained 
from those who really know, the medium's actual standing 
and ability. The world is full to-day of those who are being 
duped and fleeced by unscrupulous persons who prey upon 
the experience of human bereavement. And if you must in- 



FUTUEE POSSIBILITIES 117 

vestigate for yourself, be sure to guard most zealously your 
mental balance and your own self-control. 

But we must repeat, with all possible emphasis, the work 
of psychic investigation is peculiarly the work of the trained 
expert, and the valuable results for the world will come 
through his efforts. The rest of us must learn to be content 
to await his verdict. 



CHAPTER VIII 

THE AGE AND PSYCHIC EElSEAitOH 

" During the past century progress has lain chiefly in the domain 
of the mechanical and material. The progress has been admirable, 
and has led to natural rejoicing and legitimate pride. It has also 
led to a supposition that all possible scientific advance lies in this 
same direction, or even that all the great fundamental discoveries 
have now been made. But it is rational to take a more compre- 
hensive view." — Sir Oliver Lodge. 

After the preceding survey of the motives and aims of 
Psychic Research, of its problems and methods, its accom- 
plishments thus far and its future possibilities, it still remains 
for us to inquire into the broader significance of the wide^ 
spread interest to-day in the general subject regarded as a 
whole, that is, as relating to the future destiny of man. 

We may afiirm that the original cause of the awakening of 
such general interest in the subject goes back to the eighties, 
when the English and American Societies for research in 
this field first came into existence. There is no doubt that 
these Societies, with their published Journals and " Proceed- 
ings,'' together with the reports of individual workers that 
have appeared from time to time, have served as no other sin- 
gle cause in the arousing of interest among large numbers 
of intelligent people who were, formerly, either ignorant of, 
or indifferent to, the whole realm of psychic phenomena. 

But the question still remains: What brought these So- 
cieties into existence at this particular time ? Was it chance 
merely, or were there deeper causes at work? If these So- 
cieties were the cause of awakening interest, were they them- 

118 



THE AGE A-NJ} PSYCHIC EESEAECH 119 

selves^ in turn, not the effect of underlying influences that 
were perhaps not apparent at the surface ? When the whole 
scientific world, with a few exceptions, was either utterly in- 
different, or even hostile, to the idea of continued existence, 
and looked with horror on all forms of spiritualistic phenom- 
ena, what conscious or unconscious motive led that little com- 
pany of scientific men to brave the ridicule and criticism of 
their colleagues and the anathemas of religious orthodoxy, 
and organize the first Societies for psychical research ? The 
full significance of psychic research cannot be determined 
until we first have attempted to answer these more obscure 
questions. 

Or we may claim, as many do-, that the well-nigh universal 
interest in a future existence to-day has been occasioned by 
the loss of millions of lives through the war, and the conse^ 
quent loneliness and sorrow that now fill multitudes of human 
hearts — losses so great nmnerically and extending to so 
many countries, that the incalculable amount of human grief 
has resulted in a wave of hysterical thought and emotion that 
is sweeping through this sorrow-stricken world, desperately 
seeking assuagement in some new assurance that the dead 
have not died ; and thus, that all this " abnormal " interest 
in the subject is an inevitable part of the war-psychology. 
In time, as the war recedes into the background of history 
and people move further away from their personal losses, the 
sorrow that now fills the world will lose the keenness of its 
biting edge, men and women will once again become absorbed 
in the things of time and sense, and the unusual interest in 
another life will naturally wane. 

All this is certainly truci, but is it all the truth ? Every 
war, through the losses it infiicts, has always tended for a 
time to turn the attention of those who have suffered most, 
away from purely mundane pursuits and interests. It would 
be strange indeed if the greatest war in history should not 



120 THE NEW LIGHT ON IMMORTALITY 

produce similar results. And yet the question persists: Is 
this interest in super-earthly subjects more general to-day 
than ever before? Is it exactly similar to such interest fol- 
lowing other wars; or do new elements now enter in that 
have not formerly existed ? 

May it possibly be true that there is a " something new " 
coming to birth in the soul of humanity, something that, in its 
beginnings, antedates the war and, yet, that has been tre- 
mendously accentuated and accelerated by all that the war 
has involved — something more truly spiritual in human life 
than what has been, only just emerging into consciousness, 
but dimly perceived as yet — strange stirrings that are felt 
but not at all understood, dumb gropings, vague yet real 
aspirations toward a something better, higher and more 
satisfying, than man has ever known ? 

Such a viev/ becomes more plausible when we remember 
that the new interest in these matters was awakened and the 
work of these Societies was begun a generation before the war 
took place. The fact is that the war has only immensely 
deepened and widened an interest in the subject that had 
long since come to exist in many thoughtful minds through- 
out the civilized world. Hence it must be clear that the war 
is not alone responsible for this '" new interest,'' and with the 
fading of the war and its sorrows into the backgTound of 
memory, it may be assumed that " the something " awakened 
in the life of humanity need not wholly disappear. 

May it not be possible that this groping for more light on 
the part of so many people to-day, amid the dim twilight of 
psychic phenoniena, this present centering of attention on 
the matter of the mere evidence for survival after death, con- 
stitutes in reality but the first crude and blindly attempted 
efforts of man to achieve for himself a more genuinely spir- 
itual life here and now, to attain to an immortality that shall 
not consist merely of a quantity of endless years, but of a 



THE AGE A^D PSYCHIC EESEAECH 121 

quality of heart and soul and mind, inwrought into human 
life in this world — a conscious attainment, while still living 
under the limitations of time and sense ? 

Is it altogether inconceivable that the real impelling motive 
lying back of scientific investigation and popular experiment- 
ing in this field, is deeper and far more significant than 
simply to ascertain the truth about human survival, that even 
many of the trained investigators are but very dimly conscious 
that their work, in reality, has to do with such far-reaching 
results for man's life here upon the earth that the mere fact 
of survival, taken by itself, will eventually seem to be of 
minor importance ? In other words, may it not prove to be 
true, that the fact of human survival, if it be a fact, is not an 
end in itself, but the means to a vastly larger conception both 
of life and of immortality ? 

It is not at all unreasonable to believe that out of all the 
vague, yet earnest, gropings of to-day for mo^re light on the 
old problem, there may come at length such a clear-cut ap- 
preciation of those moral and spiritual values which are not 
of time but of eternity, such a deep and habitual realization 
of the possibility of bringing one's life into harmony with 
these eternal values here and now, so real and constant a 
consciousness of one's true immortality in this present world, 
that the question as to the scientific proof of the survival of 
personal identity after death would become of minor interest. 
This much is clear, unless psychic research does lead eventu- 
ally to such real ends, it will have accomplished little for the 
higher life of man or for the true progress of the race, what- 
ever may be the nature of its final conclusions. 

But before these questions can be clearly answered and the 
full import of such considerations be understood, it is neces- 
sary that we briefly review the age that has brought psychic 
research into existence. 

One of the most remarkable books that has ever been pub- 



122 THE NEW LIGHT GIST IMMGRTALITY 

lished came from the press in 1918. It is entitled, '' The 
Education of Henry Adams." Its significance lies not only 
in its contents, bnt even more in the person of the author who 
tells the story of his own life after reaching seventy years of 
age. Henry Adams was of the very essence of ISTew England. 
His great-grandfather was John Adams, second President of 
the United States ; his grandfather was John Quincy Adams, 
sixth President of the United States ; his father was Charles 
Francis Adams, Minister to England during the critical 
years of the Civil War; his brother was the first President 
of a great transcontinental railroad. This Henry was a 
scholar. He edited the North American Review, he wrote a 
half a dozen works on American political affairs, he taught 
mediaeval history at Harvard College. Then, near the close 
of his comparatively uneventful years, he put '' The Educa- 
tion of Henry Adams " into form. This book will live, not 
because it is the story of the life of Henry Adams, but be- 
cause it records in this typical experience the tragic drama 
of the last century. 

The story of his life is the drama of his attempt to find the 
reality that forever eludes him, to discover the truth that he 
cannot see. He goes through the cycle of the I^ew England 
culture that was based on eighteenth century rationalism. 
Its behavior and morals were preeminently political. Its 
Bible was the Constitution, interpreted according to its vary- 
ing economic moods. Upon this political culture was over- 
laid the liberal culture of England and the classical world. 
But the time comes at length when Adams discovers that 
these do not apply to the world in which he lives. Then he 
turns to modern science and faithfully follows its trail from 
Darwin to Poincare, but in the end he is again disappointed. 
He even turns away at last from the Djmamo of modern 
science toward the Mediaeval Virgin whom he wistfully en- 
vies, for she at any rate seemed to generate real power. 



THE AGE AND PSYCHIC EESEAECH 123 

A whole century of discovcTy, of speculation, of frenzied 
fidelity to fact brings him at length to what he calls a ^' barred 
threshold " which he cannot pass, and yet a threshold which 
he vagaiely feels must lead to a new religion. And in his 
last chapters, this rationalist and skeptic, this close student 
of political and physical science, speaks almost in the tones 
of a mystic of old. One does not sense in the book what lies 
beyond this threshold toward which Adams' experience has 
led him ; and yet, one knows instinctively that he calls his life 
a failure simply because he has somehow missed the spiritual 
meaning and failed to discern the spiritual ends of life. The 
whole book is thus a cry for the new gods, a reaching out for 
the new spiritual values which Adams cannot see, but which 
he knows must exist so^me where. 

The experience of Henry Adams is the experience of the 
nineteenth century. It has been the century of industrial 
civilization and of modem science. It has been dominated 
by the machine and the laboratory. It began with man in- 
venting the machine and discovering the methods of the 
laboratory; it ends with man the helpless slave of what his 
own mind and hands have builded. With eager enthusiasm 
he sought to discover things^ and make things, until at last 
his true life has been dwarfed and stifled by the multitude 
of mere things his ingenuity has produced. The industrial 
age has given us a materialistic philosophy, a mechanistic 
science and a commercialized view of life that have sapped 
the vitality of all our idealisms. All the old religious creeds 
have been dissolved by the acids of the laboratory, and since 
then, the theologians have been following blind alleys with 
no vision of the Great Word which should bring abundant 
life to men. All our moral ideals, sooner or later, have gone 
to pieces on the machine, and men grope in imcertainty to- 
day for the broken fragments that remain. 

At the time of the Civil War, this civilization reached its 



124 THE NEW LIGHT 0]t^ IMMORTALITY 

nadir here in America. It was then that two great voices 
were heard — Walt Whitman and Abraham Lincoln. They 
were not of the past but of the new and unborn future. They 
stood forth as innovators, as explorers, as the prophets of a 
new and better order of things. Whitman sang of a spiritual 
democracy, springing from the depths of the human con- 
sciousness; while Lincoln lived and died for all the people, 
simply as people. But they were voices crying in the wilder- 
ness. America was not ready to hear, much less to under- 
stand, their profound message. And so we made of one a 
mere eccentric ; and we took the homely features and awkward 
form of the other and made an idol of them, utterly missing 
the greatness of his soul. After the Civil War we plunged 
as a nation into a wild orgy of selfish exploitation and reck- 
less greed that made us appear to be great and strong and 
prosperous, but that left us infinitely poorer in the things of 
the mind and heart and soul. 

What was true of America was also true of Europe. Dur- 
ing this wonderful development of modern industrial civiliza- 
tion, we had been building a huge, gigantic body, curiously 
complex and subtly intricate in all its various parts — a body 
so complex and intricate as to require the most delicate and 
sensitive guidance on the part of its controlling spirit, if 
harmony and peace were to be preserved. It is just at this 
point that there lies revealed the fatal weakness of modern 
civilization. We had developed by means of science and the 
industrial system a gigantic body for our civilization, but the 
guiding intelligence, the controlling spirit, the animating 
soul of this huge and complex body was the merest pygmy. 
We had neglected and well-nigh forgotten the fact that the 
body needed an equally great and informing spirit. And at 
last, it was inevitable — this soulless body, this vast machine 
which we had builded and which we called Civilization, like 



THE AGE A'ND PSYCHIC KESEAECH 125 

some Erankenstein monster, turned in destructive fury upon 
humanity. 

But at last the scales have fallen from our eyes and we know 
that, in spite of the abundance of the things we possess, we 
are poverty stricken in all that makes life worth the living. 
In all our striving to gain and possess and amass for our- 
selves, both as individuals and as nations, we are beginning 
to realize at last that we have missed the supreme thing — 
life itself, without which all things are meaningless — the 
life that means being rather than having^ the life that is ap- 
preciation and sympathy and joy and helpfulness. We may 
indeed have gained the whole world — of things — but we 
have lost the priceless art of living and loving — '' the life 
that is life indeed." 

Under these conditions the deeper significance of the wide- 
spread interest in the things of another life, as expressed 
through psychic research, must begin to be apparent. The 
age, by its practical materialism, its absorption in the things 
of time and sense, its greed for power and wealth, its indif- 
ference to human needs, its blindness to moral ideals, its wor- 
ship of Force, has left the spirit in man stripped and barren 
of all that gives meaning and value to life. Man has been 
shut up in a purely physical universe by a materialistic sci- 
ence, from which there seems to be no outlet for his deepest 
aspirations. He has been told by a mechanistic psychology 
that he himself is only an intricate machine and will perish 
with the body. In his daily life and work he has been treated 
as if he were only a machine by an industrial system that has 
well-nigh lost all sense of human values. And when he turns 
to religion, he is met far too often by a traditional theology, 
most of whose dogmas appear to him either obsolete or mean- 
ingless. 

Man knows himself to be a living, breathing, thinking, 



126 THE A^EW LIGHT 0^ IMMOETALITY 

willing, hoping, fearing, loving, aspiring being. Something 
deep within tells him he is not the body, and may not be 
dependent upon the body for existence. He dreams dreams 
and sees visions, and in the depths of his soul he hears voices 
— intuitive voices — that are neither explained away nor yet 
explained by present-day science or religion. He admits that 
he is only a cog in the wheel of our social life, and he knows 
that at any time he may be called out to become " food for 
cannon," yet he aspires most earnestly towards freedom — 
a freedom to be himseK among other free selves — the self he 
knows he can be, if that freedom is ever gained. 

Man cannot express himself clearly. His deepest is as 
yet in articulate. But back behind all the surface unrest 
of modern life are countless men and women whO' feel that 
they are being stifled and dwarfed in all the higher ranges 
of their beings and that their lives are becoming narrower 
and poorer and more mechanical under the conditions of 
to-day. The human soul feels itself outraged by all our 
materialistic philosophies and our mechanistic sciences and 
our fossilized creeds, and man's entire spiritual nature re- 
bels against the bars of the prison house which the spirit of 
the age has fashioned. Amidst all the confusion and chaos 
that prevail, man knows not where to turn for his ideals, but 
at the same time he knows that he must find the real ideals 
somewhere, and live his life by them, ot else his existence 
will become utterly empty and worthless. 

The deepest need to-day everywhere is for a clear grasp 
upon the eternal moral and spiritual values of life, amid all 
that is crumbling and passing away. And men and women 
everywhere, whether they know it or not, are reaching up 
faltering hands toward such ideals, are more or less vaguely 
seeking a more spiritual conception of life that shall make 
possible a truth and a freedom they know not now, are 



THE AGE ANB PSYCHIC EESEAECH 127 

earnestly craving the light that shall enable them to see the 
invisible behind the visible, the unseen within the seen. 

This is the real, though often inarticulate, demand made 
by the human spirit to-day. The age has lost its grip on 
eternal values, it has become blinded to ideals, it has made 
of life a vast machine, and psychic research furnishes the 
opportunity, though by no means the only one, by which 
many feel they may regain those things of which they have 
been bereft by the spirit of the age in which they live. 
Whether they realize it or not, the psychic researchers of 
every variety are really seeking for the assurance that man 
is a spiritual being, living in a spiritual universe, whose 
true ideals belong not to time but to eternity. 

As the Ereudian school of psychoanalysis would explain it, 
the age in which we have been living has tended to suppress 
the instinctive, natural desires of man to experience a spir- 
itual freedom, to attain a moral stability and to realize a 
sense of something permanent and of infinite value within 
himself. The practical philosophy, the low ideals and the 
selfish motives that dominate the age have all tended to limit 
the normal satisfaction of these instinctive human needs, 
that are as deep as life itself, and to stultify man's expression 
of his natural moral aims and spiritual aspirations. And in 
this field of psychic research there are many who honestly 
think they have found an outlet for what has been suppressed 
in them for so long. 

'No one can read carefully the writings of men like Maeter- 
linck or James or Lodge or Hyslop, and their kind, without 
coming to feel that they have been impelled to devote time 
and energy to the search for facts in this particular field, not 
merely for the sake of the ultimate truth of survival after 
death, but because of the bearing of this tiTith on man's moral 
and spiritual life here upon earth. It is a more spiritual 



128 THE NEW LIGHT OE" IMMORTALITY 

conception of life as a whole, that Maeterlinck is clearly 
seeking. The same thing is profoundly true of James. 
Lodge adds to this what he feels may prove to be a revital- 
izing inilnence upon a moribund religion ; while Hyslop goes 
still further in pointing out what he regards as its practical 
bearing upon politics and the economic structure of society. 
Such writers are consciously giving expression, through their 
interest in psychic research, to human needs and desires, in 
themselves as well as in others, which they feel have been 
denied and suppressed by so much of current science and 
philosophy, and especially by the general spirit of the age. 

Other workers in this field, who may not have expressed 
themselves so fully or frankly, as to the broader implications 
of their studies, have nevertheless been impelled, more or less 
consciously, by the same motive of justifying and setting 
free, if possible, the instinctive spiritual hungers of man. 
While the many untrained '^ experimenters," who have never 
stopped to analyze their motives and who think they are 
merely seeking evidence for survival, or striving to get into 
communication with some loved one, are in some sense being 
moved by the same instinctive, though inarticulate, desire to 
achieve and realize for themselves a larger spiritual experi- 
ence. 

In an age that has thus tended to deny the deepest needs 
of the human spirit, and that has belittled and disparaged 
and suppressed the moral and spiritual aspirations of man, 
the work of the psychic researcher was not only inevitable 
but imperative. 



CHAPTEK IX 

THE ETHICAL AT^D SOCIAL IMPLICATIONS OF 
PSYCHIC EESEAECH 

" Dawn, shadow, evening, space and stars ; 
What night 
Hides in its veils or shows forth mistily. 
Add to their exaltation; they who live 
In love, live also in Eternity." 

— Emile VerJiaeren. 

Many are the voices being raised to-day, in tones strident 
or more persuasive, telling mankind what is wrong with the 
world ; and numerous indeed are the books coming constantly 
from the press of all lands, attempting to analyze " the pres- 
ent situation," either preaching confidently the virtues of 
some cherished panacea for the ills that afflict humanity, or 
suggesting more cautiously the clews to the many problems 
which must be solved before civilization can find the way 
O'Ut of the blind impasse in which it now finds itself. The 
various theories — political, economic, industrial and reli- 
gious — which are being offered as the way out, are legion ; 
each one represented by bold champions and staunch ad- 
herents, and each claiming to po'ssess the only key that will 
unlock the door to the progress of the future. 

Still the murky darkness that fills the sky is not dispelled ; 
the difficulties in the pathway of progress steadily multiply 
and the great problems remain unsolved. The world is lan- 
guishing in pain and sorrow, is filled with struggle and strife, 
is embittered by prejudice and hatred. An unrest deeper and 

129 



130 THE NEW LIGHT 01^ IMMORTALITY 

■more ominous than the world has ever known before, surges 
to and fro in the life of all peoples. Race is pitted against 
race, imperialistic powers are contending feverishly for su- 
premacy, subject peoples are struggling fiercely for the right 
of self-government and the freedom to live their own na- 
tional lives unmolested, while within the nations, capital and 
labor, employer and employee, grapple in a life and death 
conflict; and those who remain outside of these opposing 
groups either look on, helplessly indifferent, or else are filled 
with a deepening impatience and disgust with the conditions 
under which they are compelled to live their lives. 

In a sense the world has always known struggle and sorrow, 
strife and pain; perhaps in some form, it always will know 
them. For struggle and its inevitable co^nsequents — pain 
and disappointment — are essential parts of the price we all 
must pay for living in a world that is still in the process of 
making ; they constitute the inseparable conditions of progress 
and development both for the individual and for society; 
they give zest and value and meaning to life. A world with- 
out any kind of struggle would be a dead and stagnant world, 
from which real men and women would recoil in horror. 

But v/hile this is admitted frankly, it is also profoundly 
true that the struggle and unrest of to-day, which the war 
did not begin and which the formal peace has not ended, be- 
token changes that are inevitable, point to an advance that is 
imperative in the organized life of humanity. To all 
thoughtful minds everywhere it is becoming increasingly evi- 
dent that things-as-they-have-been must give place to things- 
as-they-are-to-be. We stand at a clear parting of the ways. 

ISTo one v/ould be foolish enough to claim however that 
present-day problems are easy of solution, and it is certainly 
true that there is no one panacea that will cure all the ills 
from which the world is suffering; there is no easy escape 
from the blind alley into which the age has led us. It is not 



ETHICAL A:ND social IMPLICATIONS 131 

as simple as some of our theorists would have us believe. 
But if the past has any one truth to reveal more clearly than 
another it is, that no problem is ever solved until it is solved 
right, that is, in accordance with the right ; and that the only 
safe and dependable guiding stars in this period of shadowy 
uncertainty and chaotic confusion are the eternal ideals of 
sincerit}^ and truth, of freedom and liberty, of justice and 
right, of good-will and human brotherhood. 

And the tragedy of our age — all its ignorant stupidity 
and muddle-headedness, its pathetic blindness and willful 
cruelty, its brutal selfishness and utter disregard for the 
common humanities, its easy surrender of fundamental lib- 
erties and its cold indifference to primary social duties and 
obligations — let us confess it honestly — is due to the fact 
that for so many, the clear shining of these eternal ideals has 
grown dim and has even faded into the garish light of a com- 
monplace and superficial day, and that all of us, in some 
degree, have lost our grasp upon those fundamental principles 
of righteousness and truth and love, apart from which all 
human problems must remain forever insoluble. 

This is the so^rry legacy bequeathed to us by all the ma- 
terialistic philosophies and mechanistic sciences and tradi- 
tional theologies and selfish individualisms of an age, great 
in its physical discoveries, its mechanical inventions and its 
industrial revolution, but increasingly anaemic spiritually, 
and pitiably weak and small in its sense of the supreme moral 
values of life. To all who have eyes to see and hearts to 
understand, this has been the deepest revelation of the war. 
And to regain our vision of, and our grasp upon, these su- 
preme values of life is the primary task of the new age that 
now dawns upon the world. 

There may be those who resent the statement that our age 
has lost the great ideals. The fact is that the names remain 
with us, while the all-compelling truth within the name has 



132 THE NEW LIGHT ON IMMORTALITY 

well-nigh lost all its power. Of course, we still talk and 
write and preach about these ideals, but they are mere poetic 
sentiments to most of us, beautiful mottoes that we hang 
upon the wall and then turn our backs upon. They are not 
incorporated into the inmost being of life and character; 
they have not been inwrought into the warp and woof of our 
manhood and womanhood; and we seldom see their applica- 
tion to the social conditions under which we live. ISTot many 
of us would make even an inconsiderable sacrifice for their 
sake ; we would not dream of dying for them, much less face 
the unpopularity and social ostracism that might be involved 
in living them out frankly before all men. 

It may not be perceived at first glance just how the move- 
ment inaugurated by psychic research is rendering a service, 
to the renaissance of moral idealism. Let us consider this 
phase of the subject more carefully. 

The impatience which many sincere minds have felt with 
the subject of immortality in general, has arisen from two 
sources. First, the tendency that the interest in a life after 
death has exhibited, in many cases, to produce an " other- 
worldliness,'' that is, a lessening of interest in the duties and 
privileges of the life that now is, and an undue emphasis 
upon some future existence. And, second, the failure to re^ 
alize that ethical distinctions must hold an essential place in 
any reasonable conception of immortality, and a consequent 
tendency to disregard the influence of moral values in '^ an- 
other life." These are serious charges if true, and in many 
instances they have been all too true. But the criticism does 
not apply to the truth of immortality, but rather to the im- 
perfect way in which it has often been held, or the unworthy 
form in which it is presented. One's belief in the fact of 
survival need not serve to subtract one's interest and energy 
from this present world. It may, and often does, tend to 
infuse all of one's life here with a new and nobler quality — 



ETHICAL A:ND social IMPLICATIOISrS 133 

a greater earnestness and a more considerate and unselfish 
feeling for others. Which result it has, in any given case, 
depends on the right or wrong use one makes of the fact. 

The traditional theological doctrines of Heaven and Hell, 
together with the Roman Catholic doctrine of Purgatory, 
grew out of an instinctive recognition of the permanency of 
moral values, even after death. They were for centuries 
mighty symbols, bearing witness not through their literalness 
but through their poetry, to the eternal ethical distinctions 
of life. With the loosening of the hold of these old doctrines, 
in their literalness, upon the modem mind, men have for- 
gotten the truth to which they testified ; and with the blurring 
of moral ideals here in this earthly life, the life to come has 
often been pictured as lacking in all moral distinctions. To 
the morally developed man or woman, such a life would have 
little meaning and less attractions. Such flabby conceptions 
have figured largely in modern preaching, and it serves to 
explain the falling away from the churches of so many 
ethically minded people. 

Psychic research, not so much through its leaders as 
through its great mass of amateur " experimenters,'' has also 
tended to forget moral values, through its absorption in many 
details connected with questions of proof and identification, 
and also through the trivial nature of so many of the pur- 
ported communications. But it cannot be too emphatically 
stated, that there can be no real gain for hmnanity in the 
scientific proof of survival, unless that proof also carries with 
it the clear realization of ethical distinctions in the " other 
life," a realization so keen that it must react for good upon 
the moral and practical life of men here on earth. Let us 
suggest, more specifically, some of the moral and social im- 
plications which lie at the heart of the impulse back of 
psychic research, and which should be emphasized 'with 
greater force and clearness by all interested in the subject. 



134 THE NEW LIGHT OIST IMMORTALITY 

If psychic research promises anything to the world, it 
holds ont the hope of eventually throwing light upon the na- 
ture and destiny of the human soul, and of doing this hy the 
scientific method instead of by pure speculation or faith. If 
it succeeds in its supreme quest, let us see what it will 
mean. 

It will make inevitable the revival of the importance of 
spirit and mind in nature, where now the prevailing tendency 
is to see only matter and force, and where all mental states 
are reduced to an attribute of matter organized in a particu- 
lar way. This is fundamental to any high idealism, as it 
means a larger universe than that perceived by our senses — 
larger, not in a quantitative but in a qualitative sense, where 
faith and hope and love and aspiration have as real a place 
as eyes and ears and nose and hands — a universe in vv^hich 
ideal things have an actual existence. If this ^^ knov/ledge " 
should be attained, it will have far greater power to uphold 
moral agencies and inspire moral strivings than had the be- 
lief in immortality in the past, for it will possess an efficacy 
that can never attach to a belief not so assured. 

Equally fundamental is the value that would be placed on 
human personality, if it should be unquestionably demon- 
strated that man has a soul, and that his soul persists after 
death. An age in which the great teachers have been laying 
increasing stress upon the supremacy of human personality 
as the goal of the entire evolutionary process, the one reality 
possessed of limitless possibilities and of infinite worth, is 
also the age, strange as it may seem, that holds human life 
so cheap as to regard millions of individuals as mere things, 
treat them like commodities, drive them like machines, and 
send them in vast armies to become food for cannon; an age 
that has so little reverence even for its loftiest souls, its '^ pure 
idealists," as to shut them up in prison for months and even 
years, when their only crime has been their refusal to violate 



ETHICAL A^D SOCIAL IMPLICATIONS 135 

tlie voice of conscience sounding in tlie depths of their own 
souls — " of whom the world was not worthy." 

The subordinate place that the individual held in the life 
of antiquity is familiar to all. As an individual, he counted 
for nothing. The social system took no account of the im- 
portance of personality, and of our duty to reverence it, sim- 
ply as such, everywhere. Those in power, both the ruling 
and the priestly classes, were at liberty to exploit the rest of 
manlvind as they pleased. But the ideal teachings of Jesus 
created a new social standard, based upon the nature and 
worth of each individual soul, and our responsibility toward 
it. Down through the centuries, this belief in the intrinsic 
worth of each individual, because in every being there dwelt 
a something imperishable, has struggled for recognition ; and 
gradually, in just the measure that men have accepted this 
truth, life has become more humane and kindly, more un- 
selfish and mutually helpful. Education has been brought 
within the reach of all, innumerable opportunities for self- 
development have been created, and countless missionary and 
philanthropic agencies have been set in motion, all because 
of the belief in the intrinsic worth of the individual, simply 
as such. 

The materialistic reaction of the last half-century, how- 
ever, has threatened this conception with extinction, as is ap- 
parent in the new imperialism that has risen and in the con- 
tempt for other races that has naturally followed. We no 
longer feel the racial sympathy felt by the early missionaries, 
or the sense of the unity of the human race created by our ob- 
ligation to share the truth and the blessings we enjoy with 
even the poorest and meanest of earth. We have adopted 
morals that threaten our own race with extinction, and then 
fear or despise those races that promise to take our place. 
The ruthless exploiters of subject peoples or weak races give 
the lie to the professed beliefs of '^ Christian " nations, while 



136 THE ISTEW LIGHT ON IMMOETALITY 

the all too-general exploitation of the worker, under our pres- 
ent industrial system, which no amount of sophistry, or eva- 
sion or apology can longer conceal to-day, only proves how low 
and cheap the estimate we place in practice upon individual 
human lives. 

ISTow suppose that the whole question of the intrinsic worth 
of the individual were taken out of the realm of pious belief 
or poetic sentiment and placed upon a scientific basis. Sup- 
pose it could be proven, beyond the shadow of any doubt, 
that E'ature, or the God of ^N^ature, prizes personality far 
too highly to ever let it be wholly lost. Suppose it could be 
proven, not just believed, that each one — the despised 
" dago " and " hunkie '' and " chink '' and " nigger '^ and 
" sheeny," as well as those who boast of their blue blood 
and culture — must go on after death, whether they want to 
or not, and that the life there is lived in obedience to the 
great law of cause and effect — that what we sow here' we 
must reap there — that the moral values of life hold inex- 
orably; I say, suppose this could be positively known as a 
fact, so that men and women everywhere had been forced to 
accept its truth. And furthermore, suppose it werei proved 
that our social, or unsocial, conduct here, actually limited and 
injured our soul's life after death — a thought that never 
enters into our calculations now — and that by the law of 
reaction or retributive justice, all the social wrongs we com- 
mit here, consciously or unconsciously — our exploitation of 
others, our indifferent selfishness, our scorn and contempt — 
would in some form be visited upon ourselves in that " other 
life." If these facts could be proven true and men generally 
accepted them as such, we should not only have the clew to 
the solution of the industrial problem, but of all our social 
and international problems of to-day. Eor the reverence of 
all other individuals, equally with ourselves, would mean the 
beginning of the reign of justice here on earth. 



ETHICAL A'NB SOCIAL IMPLICATIOITS 13T 

At any rate, if it can be proved that the materialistic theory 
of consciousness is false, and that man has a more important 
end than the satisfaction of his bodily wants and his merely 
earthly happiness, we shall then have established a new ful- 
crum for the moralist. 

There is no question but that there are many noble men 
and women to-day who have reached such a degree of moral 
development and spiritual culture, that they profess no- desire 
or even feel no necessity for a continued existence after 
death. The evidence seems to them to be against any con- 
ception of personal survival. And by a kind of lofty sto- 
icism they have accustomed themselves to the idea that death 
ends all. By virtue of their ideals, without any thought of 
a future reward or happiness, they are living here and now 
the truly moral life, both as individuals and as members of 
society. They can and do live the blameless and the service- 
able life with no hope of a personal future. 

But such a lofty attitude implies a degree of moral and 
spiritual culture and self-discipline that is as rare as it is 
admirable. Tor the great mass of men and women, however, 
hope is an essential element of the^ strong, courageous and 
aspiring life. It would seem as if there were very few who 
can act rationally without hope. It is essential to every de- 
sire we have and to every volition we exercise. There is no 
rationality in any act save as we can hope for its fruition as 
the fulfillment of our desires. If personality has any value 
in IsTature, we must appraise it as ^Nature does. If con- 
sciousness perishes at death, it is clear that hope has no ap- 
plication beyond the grave. If personality extends beyond 
the grave, however, then hope has a wider sphere of meaning, 
and so has life. Desire and volition have no meaning except 
with reference to a future; and with no prospect of attain- 
ment of our aims — of all of which we feel ourselves capable 
— the vast majority of men would have little reverence for a 



138 THE NEW LIGHT ON IMMOKTALITY 

sclieme of existence that allows cppoTtunity for no genuine 
achievement, and only keeps lis at the eternal task of Sisy- 
phus. 

From the ethical view-point it seems clear that the proof 
of survival, if it is eventually found, must mean great gain 
for the moral life of man. There is no question of the right 
and the duty to insist on economic justice and to strive for a 
moral equal distribution of this world's good things, here 
and now. But the value of this larger share will depend 
wholly upon the use to which it is put, when it has been ac- 
quired. And its use will depend upon the ideals of its 
possessor. Money is power and like all power it should re- 
ceive respect only in proportion to its furtherance of ethical 
ideals. And where shall we begin to build our ideals if not 
in a deeper reverence for the worth of our true selves and 
the intrinsic value of every other personality. If the proof 
of survival did nothing more than to bring that reverence 
into human life, it would have laid the foundation of a loftier 
morality and a nobler society. 

It is not the mere fact that we survive death that will 
affect directly the conduct of individuals and societies, but its 
place in the organic system of ideas and ideals of the social 
body. It was not the mere belief in immortality that gave 
to early Christianity its power, but the influence of that be- 
lief in giving to all of life a new and higher qualitative value. 
It is clear that an intelligent belief in a future life is, for 
most people, the best fortification for alL those duties which 
have a relation to an existence beyond the present. If we 
could organize, in association with that belief, a stronger 
sense of human brotherhood, and rise to the realization of 
those moral and social ideals that flow naturally from it, it 
might ultimately influence our social systems and our po- 
litical institutions as profoundly as did the fifteen centuries 
of Christian supremacy. 



ETHICAL A'ND SOCIAL IMPLICATIOl^S 139 

But there will be little gain for the world in any future 
discovery, bearing upon the proof of surrival, unless it does 
develop the consciousness of a new meaning in human values, 
and unless we learn to perceive in its truth, the moral and 
social implications for human existence on this planet. 



CHAPTEE X 

THE MEAISTHSTG- OF PSYCHIC RESEARCH FOR RELIGION 

" The world is no more the alien terror that was taught me. 
Spurning the cloud-grimed and still sultry battlements whence so 
lately Jehovan thunders boomed, my gray gull lifts her wing 
against the nightfall, and takes the dim leagues with a fearless 
eye. . . . And now after twenty-seven years of this experience, 
the wing is grayer, but the eye is fearless still, while I renew and 
doubly emphasize that declaration. I hnow, as having known, the 
meaning of Existence ; the sane center of the universe — at once 
the wonder and the assurance of the soul." — Benjamin Paul Blood. 

Ik its great days, organized religion has always stood out, 
heroically, in opposition to the spirit of its age. It has dared 
to antagonize the powers-that-be. To the custom-made moral- 
ity of the times it has opposed an absolute morality. In ihe 
presence of prevailing ideals of expediency and opportunism, 
it has set up its own ideals of right and simple honesty, of 
uncompromising justice, of disinterested love. It has not 
been the servile time-server, but has sought to live its life 
bravely, and sometimes very sternly, as from the view-point 
of Eternity. At such periods in its history it has had to 
endure social ostracism and, oftentimes, bitterest persecu- 
tion ; but the degree of its '^ unpopularity " has usually been 
the measure of its genuine spiritual life and moral power. 

This will ever be true for the simple reason that " pure 
religion and undefiled '' must always stand frankly and un- 
compromisingly for ideal things ; and the world-as-it-is, where 
religion must take its place, is for the most part blind to ideal 
things, and, in daily practice, makes little or no attempt to 

140 



MEAOT^G OF PSYCHIC EESEAECH 141 

translate them into life. This is only another way of saying 
that it is the function of religion to lead in all that makes 
for the higher moral and spiritual life of man ; and if it does 
truly lead, it must of necessity stand above and apart from 
the present world, not in any spatial sense, but in the texture 
and quality of its spiritual perceptions, of its moral insight, 
of its devotion to ideals, of its passion for righteousness. 

When its message becomes merely the echo of the Zeitgeist, 
when it ceases to be the fearless non-conformist to things-as- 
they-are, when it prefers to be popular rather than to be right, 
and has no higher objective than just " to go with the crowd," 
then, in spite of all its boasted wealth and the number of its 
adherents, its spiritual power has departed, and '' Ichabod " 
can truly be inscribed over the portals of its temples. Eor 
this much is clear to-day, beyond peradventure, that the 
power and truth of any religion consist not in its creeds 
or its forms, its wealth or its numbers, but solely in its clear 
grasp upon the moral and spiritual values of life. 

If the industrial revolution has destroyed our moral ideal- 
ism, modern science has swept away our creeds. Apology has 
often been made for religious conditions to-day by saying that 
religion, like everything else, is passing through a transitional 
stage in its development. This is profoundly true, but the 
pathos of the situation lies in the fact that in the realm of 
religious thought and activity, there is apparent the same 
aimless drifting, the same absence of any common purpose, 
the same confusion and bickerings, the same blindness to 
human needs — in a word, the same muddle-headedness that 
exists in other realms of thought and activity to-day. 

Traditional religion entered the dangerous region of threat- 
ening rocks and hidden reefs in the early part, of the century, 
when the scholars began to apply the new historic sense and 
the scientific principles of historical inquiry to the study of 
the origins of Christianity and to the gources and the de* 



142 THE NEW LIGHT OIT IMMORTALITY 

velopment of Christian theology. Biblical criticism began 
with the Old Testament, but it could not stop there; reso- 
lutely it pushed on into the field of the 'New Testament, 
where not only the epistles but the still more sacred Gospel 
narratives, containing the record of the life and the teachings 
of the Founder of the Christian religion, were subjected to 
the most rigid scrutiny. While much that had constituted 
traditional belief was swept away, that which remained — 
the historicity of the broad outlines of the life of Jesus and 
of his essential teachings — was placed on a surer and more 
permanent foundation than it had ever occupied before, as 
the result of this scientific inquiry. 

E'ow, if the theologians and the leaders of religious thought 
generally, had then frankly recognized these old theologies 
for what they really are — poetic mythologies, enshrining 
not as history or science or philosophy, but as poetry, great 
and imperishable truths that must, in the very nature of 
things, be translated afresh from generation to generation — 
and had then honestly sought to translate these poetic truths, 
or symbols, into a prose more intelligent to, and more con- 
sonant with, the generally accepted knowledge of modern 
times than was the language of the creeds, the results might 
have been very different for religion and for the world. 
There were a few who did make this honest attempt, but they 
were so few comparatively, and they encountered such bitter 
opposition both from officialism in religion and also from 
the deep-seated prejudices of the less intelligent masses, that 
their influence was strictly limited. It is to such brave and 
intelligent leaders, however, that true religion owes its great- 
est debt of gratitude, all down through the centuries. 

Eor the most part, however, the religious leaders either set 
themselves rigidly to the defense of traditional views against 
all the encroachments of science, or else weakly sought to 
compromise with sciencei, agreeing to surrender a rampart 



MEAlSrraG OF PSYCHIC EESEAECH 143 

there, if they might be allowed to keep the citadel here, not 
realizing that it was the very foundation of faith rather 
than any of its particular statements that was in jeopardy, 
and not daring to face resolutely and frankly the main issue. 

It is here that we see the possible meaning that psychic 
research may have for the religion of the future. 

Leaving aside in this connection all subordinate questions, 
what is the fundamental need in religion to-day? The an- 
swer is clear ; it is the need of religion in everyday life. It 
is the need of the rebirth of religion in the actual experience 
of living men and women. Religion must again beco'me ex- 
periential, as in its greatest days, and cease to be what it has 
so largely become — chiefly a matter of traditions. Men 
must find again a first-hand experience of the truths of re- 
ligion, instead of accepting them second-hand from some far 
away past. We need not cease to believe in holy men and 
prophets of other days, but we must produce our own holy 
men and prophets, and find in their messages as authoritative 
a revelation for to-day as ever found expression through 
prophets of a by-gone age. 

Man must find the seat of authority in religion, not in any 
creed or church however hoary with age, but within himself 
— in the truth that he feels and perceives and knows as such. 
He must no longer be content simply to " accept as true " 
the teachings of Jesus or of any of the other gi-eat leaders of 
the race, for they will never be true for him until they have 
been tested in experience and become a very part of the in- 
most fiber of his being. He must not cherish the ideals of 
religion merely as beautiful sentiments, though quite im- 
practical for this world, but he must dare to make them his 
very own, in the sense of incorporating them into life and 
character so that they shall become the dynamic, all-com- 
pelling source, from whence shall proceed all his thoughts, 
his words and his deeds, 



144 THE NEW LIGHT ON IMMORTALITY 

Religion must become again what it was in the beginning, 
and what it has always been in its great creative moments — 
a religion of man, that is, a religion born in man's inner con- 
sciousness, tested in his own experience, rising spontaneously 
from his own first-hand contact with reality and translating 
itself into life and spirit and character. In other words, 
religion must be known and felt and loved, as a living ex- 
perience within — not merely believed as a creed or accepted 
as an ideal — if it is to find its true rebirth in the new age. 
Only thus will men and women have the faith and the 
courage to live out their religion in all the relations of life; 
only thus will the church, made up of such men and women, 
regain its lost moral and spiritual leadership in the world; 
only thus will the present uncertainty in belief give way to a 
new and living faith ; and only thus can a new theology arise, 
that translates its truths into terms harmonious with the ac- 
cepted truths of modern science and philosophy. 

But what relation can psychic research have to this funda- 
mental need of religion, to become again a living experience 
in human life ? Already psychic research has succeeded in 
taking the whole subject of immortality, which has consti- 
tuted hitherto one of the central doctrines of all religions, 
out of the domain of theology, and has made of it a purely 
human problem. Eewer people will still go to the creeds 
hereafter for their ideas on immortality. No longer, as in 
the past, can the church make men believe that it, and it alone, 
holds the keys of heaven and hell in its hands. If men are 
to survive death, it will not be because they are church mem- 
bers, but human beings. This much psychic research has 
accomplished — it has made of immortality a human, as well 
as a religious problem. 

But still further, in its scientific search for the facts, psy- 
chic research is seeking to take the truth of human survival 
which has been based only on statements found in the sacred 



MEAOTJSTG OF PSYCHIC EESEAECH 145 

scriptures of the past, and on faitli in the integrity of the 
human instincts, and base it upon experience, an experience 
that can be verified and thus proven to be true. 'Now, if psy- 
chic research should succeed in its great quest, can we esti- 
mate what the result would be for religion, entirely apart 
from its direct bearing on human life ? It would mean that 
one of the great central doctrines of religion had been taken 
out of the domain of faith or hope or conjecture, and trans- 
ferred to the realm of living experience — for that is just 
what the scientific proof of survival would involve. 

Such proof would carry with it, not as theory but as ac- 
tual experience, the vastly deepened sense of the worth of 
human personality that ^N'ature values too highly to allow to 
perish with the body. With this would inevitably come, also 
in experience, the keener appreciation of all those things that 
belong essentially to the mental and moral life — the only 
part of us that can possibly survive physical death. It would 
also seem to follow as a matter of course, for all who knew the 
experience, that the moral and spiritual values of life would 
take precedence over the values merely of time and sense. 
Duty would become more attractive than pleasure ; selfish hap- 
piness would give place to mutual enjoyment, and the giving 
of one's best for the sake of others would be far more satisfy- 
ing than getting for one's self. Thus would religion tend to 
become both ethicized and socialized. 

It might even come about that man would discover 
afresh, within himself, his oneness with the Great Eeality, so 
that the God who is to-day to so many merely a dogma, a for- 
mula, a name to conjure by, would become known, in ex- 
perience, as " the life of my life, the soul of my soul, the self 
of my self.'' A new mysticism might even be born that 
would recreate the soul of religion, of art in all its many 
forms, aye, of life itself — a mysticism based on experience. 
Eor some sort of mysticism lies always at the heart of the 



146 THE ISTEW LIGHT 0:^- IMMOETALITY 

creative impulse; and when religion springs out of a living 
experience, it is always creative, bringing into being the life 
that is life indeed. 

Religion has passed through its historical stage of inquiry ; 
it has had its theological and its biological phases; in all of 
these it has both gained and lost. At last, it is coming to its 
own in its psychological stage of inquiry. For nothing is 
clearer than that the religion of the future will be based, in 
the last analysis, on a truer and more adequate psychology of 
man. Psychic research is really dealing with certain funda- 
mental phases of the coming psychology of religion. When 
all questions of religion are clearly shown to be primarily 
human questions, and not theological, born of human needs 
and answering in their solution to human aspirations, when 
they are eventually taken out of the control of ecclesiastical 
institutions and become the common knowledge of all men, 
then, and not until then, v/ill true religion be established in 
the earth. 

Psychic Research, while it has naturally limited its investi- 
gations to certain phases of man's inner life, has nevertheless 
tremendously stimulated the psychological study of religion 
on the part of others. James's significant book, ^^ The Varie- 
ties of Religious Experience," prepared the way for men like 
Starbuck and Coe, Ames and Leuba, Pratt and especially 
G. Stanley Hall, whose writings constitute most illuminating 
and suggestive contributions to the psychology of religion, and 
the end is not yet ; in fact, we are only at the beginning of the 
woTk in this field of inquiry. 

Another interesting phase of the work of psychic research 
in its bearing on religion, is found in the rapid development 
of psychotherapy. If the researchers succeed in proving that 
man, in his essence, is indeed an imperishable soul, and that 
his mind is something more than just a series of mental states, 
it will go far to strengthen the feeling fast gaining ground to- 



MEAlSriE^G OF PSYCHIC EESEAECH 147 

day, that in mind a new force has been added to healing. 
Without setting aside the achievements of the materia medica, 
the physician will then have to become a psychologist as well ; 
he will also have to be a sincere moralist. He must recog- 
nize that mind is the primary factor in healing, and that in 
order to heal successfully the bodies of men, he must heal their 
souls. Thus the function of religion may again be widened 
by science, so as to include as in early times, the salvation of 
bodies as well as of souls, or better still, the salvation of the 
body through the soul. 

These are simply a few of the possibilities that might be 
opened up to the revitalizing of religion, through the fur- 
ther efforts of the psychic researchers. It may indeed be 
true that they are working better than any of them know, and 
toward far-reaching ends they do not now descry. Of one 
thing we can be sure: if psychic research, either directly or 
indirectly, helps to hasten the day when religion shall be re^ 
born in a fresh and actual experience of living men and 
women, it will have laid the whole world under lasting obliga- 
tion. 

Religion, born of a living experience and translated into 
terms of experience — this is indeed the Great Revival for 
which the world impatiently waits. We see those old-time 
revivals to-day for what they really were — the convulsive 
movements of a body that suffocates. They have always been 
the clearest manifestations of a sense in all men that things 
were not right with the world, and that in some way religion 
was to blame. But they were all too-often but momentary 
illuminations. Their force spent itself in incoordinated 
shoutings, gesticulations, tears. They were but flashes of out- 
look, inadequate, imperfect. They sought to save souls, not 
knowing that no soul is ever saved alone, that salvation must 
be social as well as individual, and that no souls ever can be 
truly saved until society is redeemed. Disgust of the nar- 



148 THE NEW LIGHT 01^ IMMORTALITY 

row life, of all baseness, often took shape in narrowness ajid 
baseness. The quickened sonl often awoke the next morn- 
ing a hypocrite. And it was almost universal that the con- 
verted should be impatient and intolerant, scornful of reason 
and a choice of expedients, opposed to balance, commonsense 
and knowledge. 

So the former revivals spent themselves. But the Great 
Revival, when it shall finally come, born of the living experi- 
ence of man with reality, with truth and with the eternal val- 
ues of life, will not thus spend itself, but will grow to be the 
permanent expression in human life and in all social rela- 
tionships of the Kingdom of God here upon earth. 



CHAPTEE XI 

THE REAL IMMORTALITY 

" All we have willed or hoped or dreamed of good, shall exist ; 
Not its semblance, but itself; no beauty, nor good, nor power 
Whose voice has gone forth, but each survives for the melodist, 
When eternity affirms the conception of an hour. 
The high that proved too high, the heroic for earth too hard. 
The passion that left the ground to lose itself in the sky. 
Are music sent up to God by the lover and the bard ; 
Enough that He heard it once; we shall hear it by and by." 

— Browning's '' Aht. Yogler." 

Before leaving the subject, the author desires in these 
closing chapters briefly to direct the mind of the reader to- 
ward a conception of immortality with which it is not the 
province of psychic research to deal, but which is necessary 
to the completion of our thought and the satisfying of our 
ethical instincts. It may be regarded as a more philosoph- 
ical conception than any suggestions made by the researcher, 
within the limits of his own particular field. 

The scientist, as such, is seeking facts, and the verifica- 
tion of those facts ; while the philosopher's primary aim is to 
find tiie truth, based upon his interpretation of the facts of the 
scientist, and also to bring that truth into harmonious rela- 
tions with the whole general body of truth. The psychic re- 
searcher professes to be working as a scientist with the sole 
aim of ascertaining the facts in regard to hiunan survival, 
in accordance with strictly scientific methods. When he has 

finally and conclusively proved for us the nature of the facts 

149 



150 THE NEW LIGHT ON IMMOETALITY 

with which he deals — whether they are psychic or spiritual 
in origin — then we must turn to philosophy for the larger 
interpretation of these facts and for their comprehensive rela- 
tion to truth as a whole. 

While in popular consideration we speak of survival and 
immortality as if they were synonymous — and we have done 
so in the preceding chapters — still, strictly speaking, psychic 
research has nothing whatever directly to do with immortal- 
ity; its field is much more circumscribed. It is seeking the 
scientific evidence for the survival of human consciousness 
after death, and survival is in no sense synonymous with im- 
mortality. A moment's reflection will serve to make this 
clear, although most researchers fail to point out this distinc- 
tion. My personality may survive the death of my physical 
body, but it by no means follows, if that fact be proved, that 
my personality, whether or no, must continue on in an end- 
less existence. In the nature of things, psychic research 
never has, nor never can, attempt to prove endless existence, 
which is of the essence of immortality, for the human per- 
sonality by scientific methods, although it is freely granted 
that it may be possible for it to thus prove human survival. 
But whether that survival is itself a limited thing, or whether 
it is indeed to continue on forever, is beyond the range of sci- 
ence, so far as we can see, to either prove or disprove. 

It is here that we must turn to philosophy, if we are to find 
satisfaction in our quest for the truth. For philosophy lifts 
us at once to a realm that transcends the limits of temporal 
and spatial relations, and any conception of immortality 
necessarily belongs to such a transcendent realm. Survival 
after death, as the researcher seeks his evidence!, is still within 
the limitations of time and space.; ^' spirits " come and go, 
they are here or there, they ^' communicate '' with us to-night 
and promise to return again next week at the same place and 
hour. According to many of the so-called '' communica- 



THE EEAL IMMOETALITY 151 

tions/' the departed have bodies very similar to ours, thev 
wear garments, live in houses, eat and drink. All this, if it 
be true, would certainly indicate a material existence, even 
though the ^^ matter " be of a more tenuous quality than that 
which we know here. This may prove to constitute the actual 
conditions under which those who survive live their lives in 
^' another world/' and it would surely amount to continued 
existence on another plane, along the same essential lines that 
characterize existence here on earth. But it is difficult to 
see, at least with our preconceptions, how this would neces- 
sarily constitute a more spiritual existence, nor how it would 
in any sense involve immortality for the survivor. 

It may turn out that all our preconceptions as to a spiritual 
existence have been wrong; and we may be obliged, as time 
goes on, to revolutionize all our ideas on this subject. Or, if 
such communications prove to contain the truth, we may dis- 
cover that such a higher — albeit a " material '^ existence still 
— is only a transitional stage through which the survivor 
passes on in time to a more truly spiritual life, a bridge as it 
were, between the strictly material existence here on earth 
and one more spiritual. Or perhaps, as the theosophists con- 
tend, there is a series of stages or spheres through which one 
passes during long aeons of time, gradually leaving behind or 
out-growing the materiality of the past, until at last, far off, 
he reaches the plane of ^^ pure spirit." But all this is specu- 
lation, though it is not at all unreasonable if man is really to 
survive death. Since we have never seen spirit apart from 
matter, what can we predicate of ^' immaterial spirits " ? We 
have no means of knowing, or even the terms by which to ex- 
press, what ^' pure spirit " would be and what would consti- 
tute the conditions of its life. On such ultimate questions, it 
is hard for us to see how science could ever be able to throw 
any direct light. Even if human survival be proved, it would 
seem that the ultimate mystery of mau's eter^al destiny would 



152 THE E'EW LIGHT OX IMMORTALITY 

still remain; only the veil of our ignorance would then have 
been pushed back a little further. 

The antagonism that so many thoughtful minds have felt 
toward psychic research arises from the fact that so much of 
the purported evidence seems to tend toward the materializing 
of the spiritual rather than the spiritualizing of the material, 
though this is by no means true of all the '^ communications " 
received. Much of the information obtained through me- 
diums and, especially, all physical phenomena impress them 
as being vulgarly materialistic and as having nothing spir- 
itual about them. It is easy to sympathize with this feel- 
ing, and it would be true of such evidence if taken by itself 
alone, apart from evidence of a much more spiritual charac- 
ter. It is also doubtless true that for a large number of ama- 
teur '' experimenters,'' the material side of the phenomena far 
outweighs its spiritual implications and values. This is only 
another reason why the work of investigation, at the present 
stage of inquiry, should be left to the trained experts. 

It needs to be affirmed that in suggesting a more philosoph- 
ical and truly spiritual conception of the real immortality, the 
author in no sense intends to disparage, even in the slightest 
degree, the work of the trained researcher, the value of the 
evidence he has already secured, or the profound significance 
of the fact of human survival, if it should one day be proved. 
The preceding chapters must make that clear. But he does 
contend that the mere fact of survival would not necessarily 
prove the soul's immortality, and the conception of man's real 
immortality, as herein presented, would in nowise be affected, 
whatever the final conclusions as to survival may prove to be. 

A little reflection will serve to convince any one that merely 
to survive^ just as we are now, with all our present conscious 
imperfections and weaknesses, would never satisfy the grow- 
ing and aspiring soul of man. The real reason for our pres- 
ent dissatisfactions and discouragements and unhappinesses. 



THE EEAL IMMORTALITY 153 

and the large place that hope plays in most lives, spring from 
the fact that, constituted as he is, man can never long be 
content with himself as he is, any more than he can be with 
things-as-they-are. A " something " in him impels him for- 
ward irresistibly ; he feels he must advance, must make prog- 
ress toward some distant goal, however vague. This deep 
characteristic of life here, for all of us, and that conditions 
all human growtb and progress on earth, can hardly be lost if 
personality is to survive, for it is of the very essence of per- 
sonality, and it is inconceivable that in another life it should 
cease to function. 

It would never satisfy us to feel that the constantly chang- 
ing kaleidoscopic self we all know here, the self of varying 
moods and wayward tendencies and unworthy impulses, 
against whose weaknesses and foibles and faults we are always 
struggling in the earth life, was to continue just the same sort 
of struggling existence after death, sometimes attaining but 
more often failing. This is the self we are all the time seek- 
ing to master and control — the surface self of life that we 
strive continually to subordinate to the deeper, truer self that 
we feel instinctively lies within at life's center. Who would 
want to feel that he was carrying that ever restless and im- 
permanent self, just as it is, into another existence ? On the 
other hand, is there any one who, in moments of deep reflec- 
tion, does not feel intuitively that the only part of us that is 
indeed worthy of immortality, or for which we crave immor- 
tality, is that; part that belongs tO', or is associated with, this 
deeper spiritual self within ? 

If Maeterlinck's and James's conception be true, and we are 
surrounded by a Universal Consciousness, of which we are all 
but individualized parts, it is inconceivable to think that 
this tiny bit of consciousness we know here should indeed 
remain unmodified or unchanged, as it leaves the body behind 
and comes into more direct and vital relations with the larger 



154 THE NEW LIGHT ON IMMOKTALITY 

Consciousness of the universe. Ii. must expand, deepen and 
widen more or less rapidly, the true and spiritual self within 
us ever becoming more and more our real and conscious self ; 
until it may even transpire that the tiny consciousness we 
knew on earth as the self, is swallowed up as it were, or well- 
nigh forgotten, in the immensely larger spiritual self-con- 
sciousness that takes its place. 

So that the time may come when the survival of the self, as 
we know it here, will become a matter of complete indifference 
to us, when we may even come to feel that the whole question 
of survival upon which we now lay such stress is in reality 
only a symbol, adapted to undeveloped minds and unawak- 
ened spirits, of that real immortality for which we are truly 
destined. The main thing that actually interests us in sur- 
vival, when we think carefully about it, is that only that part 
of us, and of others, that is really worthwhile and valuable 
shall persist beyond death. 

We are all familiar with the axioms of science as to the in- 
destructibility of matter and the conservation of energy. 
Outward forms change and disappear, but the essence of both 
matter and energy is eternal, according to physical science. 
Professor Hoffding, the well-known Danish philosopher, in 
his book entitled, ^' The Philosophy of Religion,'' formulates 
another axiom that he calls, " The Conservation of Values." 
In his view as philosopher, he agrees with Browning and 
other seers, that no real value or good is ever actually lost. 
The whole progress and course of evolution is to increase and 
intensify the Valuable — that which ^' avails," or is service- 
able for highest purposes — and it does so by bringing out 
that which was potential or latent, so as to make it actual and 
real. Real it was, no doubt, all the time in some sense, as an 
oak is implicit in the acorn or a flower in a bud ; but in the 
process of time, it unfolds, and thus adds to the realized Value 
of the universe. 



THE EEAL IMMORTALITY 155 

With this view of ligature's emphasis upon the Valuable, 
true immortality for anything may be defined as the persist- 
ence of the essential and the real ; it applies to things or quali- 
ties which the Universe has gained — - things or qualities 
which, once acquired, cannot be let go. Immortality for any- 
thing or any being, therefore, is the result of Nature's law of 
the Conservation of Value. The tendency of evolution is to 
increase the actuality of Value, converting it from a poten- 
tial into an available form. 

But what conEtitutes ^' real values," of which we can thus 
positively affirm immortality? The 'New Realism, as it is 
called, that represents a very marked tendency in philosoph- 
ical thought to-day, reaches the climax of its reasoning in its 
Doctrine of Values, which means nothing less than the objec- 
tive actuality of the great moral ideals. These indeed are the 
eternal realities. We ask the question: What is the status 
of that perfect justice which none would be so daring as to 
claim is realized in any human society, or in the life of any 
one human being, or, indeed, in any single human act, but 
which nevertheless is thought about and is considered by at 
least some philosophers to be implied by imperfectly just 
acts ? In answer to this question one may inquire, e. g. if the 
perfect, the geometrical circle, ceases to be an entity because 
no physical object ever attains its perfection? Indeed does 
not the very imperfections of such physical objects imply the 
perfect, as the limit of the approximations ? And would the 
perfect circle cease to be if all physical objects were anni- 
hilated ? Then does ideal justice, as a standard for men to 
attain to if possible, become less of a fact because society, and 
poor, frail human beings and their concrete acts fall short 
of this ideal ? Would it cease to be, should a cataclysm hur- 
tle all human beings forever into non-existence ? And was it 
a non-fact in those far reaches of past time when to living 
nature the glow of dawning humanity had not yet come ? 



156 THE IS^EW LIGHT OK IMMORTALITY 

Professor Spaulding answers these questions, for the new 
realists, in the following words : " The answer to these in- 
quiries is almost as old as man's own philosophizing, and is 
one that unites modern Eealism with ancient Idealism. It is 
that ideals are real. Plato was, and still remains, the great 
spokesman. Eternal are justice and goodness and truth and 
love, not because they persist through all time, but because 
^ in a heaven by themselves ' they partake neither of the na- 
ture of ^ things ' that are in time and space, nor indeed, of 
the nature of time and space themselves. Time- and space- 
conditioned things — ^ existents,' we call them — approxi- 
mate to the ideal in various degrees, but never attain it. This 
was the philosophy of Plato — his Idealism and his Eealism 
— and also is it modern Realism, with Us reality of ideals and 
its ideal reals. Justice, truth, goodness and beauty are ' eter- 
nal verities ' — entities, not subject to the stresses and strains 
that distort the particular and concrete time- and perhaps 
also, space-conditioned products of natural processes.'' 

To summarize: the new realism holds that values have a 
real existence, that they are real parts of the objective world, 
external to and independent of not only their being perceived, 
conceived and appreciated, but also of the physiological or- 
ganism. Man does not create the great moral and spiritual 
values of life, as might commonly be supposed ; all he does is 
to discover their actuality, in experience with the help of rea- 
son. It is these supreme values that are the eternal and im- 
mortal realities. There is, then, a realm of values that is not 
subject to the stresses and strains of this starry universe and 
this slowly evolving earth. This, let us remember, is not only 
the view of the new realism; it is at least as old as Plato. 
The Valuable, in the highest sense, are the supreme moral 
and spiritual ideals; and if they have a real existence, an 
objective actuality as is claimed, then man is indeed living in 



THE REAL IMMOETALITY 157 

a spiritual universe in which matter and force are not the last 
or final words. 

If man, then, seeks the assurance of a genuinely spiritual 
immortality, and not merely a more or less material survival 
after death, it follows as a matter of course that he must lay 
hold of these ^^ eternal verities," which are in their very es- 
sence of eternity, and of whose immortality there cannot pos- 
sibly be any dispute. To these he must give heed, daily and 
hourly, not as to beautiful or poetic sentiments to whose ap- 
peal he may occasionally or spasmodically respond, but as to 
inexorable principles of life that he must habitually translate 
into character. Even as he obeys the physical laws of gravi- 
tation, of nutrition, of exercise and of rest, in the preserva- 
tion and care of his body, just so faithfully will he obey those 
spiritual laws that make for the preservation and development 
of his immortal spirit. To one who has actually awakened to 
the meaning of the moral and spiritual values of life, there are 
no other values comparable. The pleasures of the flesh, the 
joys of the senses, the lure of ambition in the attainment of 
the good things of this world — all these will have, and should 
have, their perfectly legitimate place, but they will never be 
allowed to stand in the way of the most complete allegiance 
to the great ideals. In the little things of life as well as in 
the larger, in social relations just as truly as in individual, 
daily and hourly, at home and abroad, with friends and with 
strangers, everywhere and constantly, he will seek to live his 
life by the light and in the inspiration of the eternal verities. 
He will seek first. Justice and Truth, Goodness and Beauty, 
Sincerity and Love, even as men seek after great riches, for he 
knows that these constitute the priceless summum honum of 
life. In the depths of his being he will hear the voice that 
says : " Be good, be true, be just, be loving, for goodness and 
truth and justice and love belong not to time but to eternity, 



158 THE NEW LIGHT ON IMMORTALITY 

and you have the capacity within yourself to partake of these 

eternal qualities and make them an essential part of your very- 
self forever." 

Thus as he gradually comes to live his life more and more 
habitually in the presence of these high values, as voluntary 
struggle and stress and strain to realize more perfectly these 
ideals, slowly gives place to involuntary and unconscious co- 
operation with them, until at length he comes literally to live 
and move and have his being in these eternal verities, then 
indeed, and not till then, does he enter, by right and inevit- 
ably, into the real immortality, for in his deepest self he has 
thus become an actual part of these realities that have always 
been of the very essence of immortality, simply because they 
are not of time but of eternity. 

This is the true and spiritual immortality we crave above 
all other possible conceptions. Simply to live on, as we have 
been here, under conditions more or less similar to those of 
earthly life, would satisfy but comparatively few, and it 
would not satisfy these for long. To survive death without 
any real sense of moral values and with no hope of ever 
coming into harmony with the eternal ideals would be less 
acceptable than annihilation. Deeper than all desire for 
mere continued existence, or even for reunion with loved ones, 
is the desire to come at length into harmony with the highest 
and best the Universe affords, and thus to become part and 
parcel of the eternal values of life. 

It must be admitted that not many seem to have grasped 
as yet the meaning of a really spiritual immortality. Just as 
most persons' ideas of God are still anthropomorphic rather 
than spiritual, even so their ideas of a future life are con- 
strued in terms materialistic rather than spiritual, after the 
fashion of life in this world. This is natural and perhaps 
even necessary, provided the language we use is always under- 
stood to be figurative or symbolic ; but it also goes to show how 



THE EEAL IMMOETALITY 159 

many there are who have never yet learned to think in spir- 
itual termS;, or to visualize to themselves spiritual conceptions 
of truth. It is greatly to be feared that the ideas of heaven 
entertained by most professing Christians bear more resem- 
blance to the Moslem's heaven of physical delights or the In- 
dian's Happy Hunting Ground than they do to a truly spir- 
itual existence. The vague hope of reunion with loved ones, 
in a life of tranquil ease and pleasure, with no more worries 
and plenty of time to rest, in a perfectly congenial atmosphere 
— how far beyond this do most people go in their thoughts of 
a future life? And yet, if asked the direct question, even 
these people would scarcely admit that their conception was 
either very lofty or very spiritual. 

The difference between this philosophical conception of the 
real immortality and the fundamental religious idea, as 
voiced by the great spiritual leaders of the race, is not so great 
as might at first appear. ITearly all the great spiritual seers 
have pictured immortality as affording the opportunity to the 
advancing soul for ultimate union with God, in some form. 
This union with the Divine was to them the great culmination 
of life ; and when this state had been attained, true immortal- 
ity would at last be achieved. Sometimes this ultimate union 
was interpreted to mean the absorption of the individual in 
the life of the ALL-BEI^N'G ; sometimes it was taught that 
the individual retained his identity but came eventually into 
vital union with the ALL-LIEE. 

According to the new realism, '^ God is the totality of Val- 
ues, both existent and subsistent, and of those agencies and ef- 
ficiencies with which these values are identical. He is also at 
once the multiplicities of these entities and the unity of their 
organization." This means that God is not only good and 
just and loving, but that God is Justice and Goodnes and 
Truth and Love, both as these are " above " our world and as 
they are in it, and that He is thus both transcendent and im- 



160 THE NEW LIGHT ON IMMORTALITY 

manent. Thus if God is personality, He is also more than 
personality, even as the moral situation among men is more 
than personality. He is love and affection and goodness, re- 
spect and reverence, as these exist among and in men, but He 
is these also as they subsist by themselves, and act efficiently 
upon men. In brief, God is Value, the active, living prin- 
ciple of the conservation of values and of their efficiency. 

Now if real immortality, in the spiritual sense, involves the 
coming into truest, fullest harmony with the great moral and 
spiritual values, or the eternal ideals — Justice and Truth, 
Goodness and Love — this is only the philosophical way of 
saying that real immortality means the coming into closest 
and truest union with God, since God is Justice and Truth, 
Goodness and Love — the sum total of all moral and spiritual 
values. And to thus come into union with God is the real- 
ization of true immortality as taught by all the great religious 
leaders of the world. 

It is very possible that this view of immortality will, at first 
thought, leave the reader cold and unsatisfied. To one who is 
accustomed to think of immortality as synonymous with con- 
tinued existence ^^ just as it is," or with reunion with loved 
ones " just as they were," it may even seem to lack all the es- 
sentials of true immort-ality. But at least it possesses this 
advantage : it would still be a true and spiritual view of im- 
mortality even if psychic research failed to discover the sci- 
entific proof of survival. And it would be true, and eveni 
more necessary to complete and spiritualize our present ideas : 
of survival, if the researchers should succeed in their demon- 
stration of continued existence. 

Whether psychic research succeeds or fa.ils in finding] 
" proof," this much is clear, on the basis of the ConservationJ 
of Values: If there is anything of real value in continued, 
personal existence after death, anything that would increase; 
or add to the moral and spiritual values of the universe, thenj 



THE EEAL IMMORTALITY 161 

we may safely assume that personality, or personal identity, 
will persist beyond the grave ; if not, it will fall away and be 
forgotten. In the same way, we may be very sure that any- 
thing of real value in our love for dear ones and in the spir- 
itual ties that bind us to them, can never be lost in a universe 
that so carefully conserves all true values. Whether we shall 
find them again " just as they were,^' or in some larger sense, 
that we are now unable to conceive, makes little difference, 
since whatever of real worth existed, in our relations with 
them, must be preserved as a part of that which is valuable, 
and therefore, imperishable in this universe. 

The real question, then, is not, " If a man die, shall he live \ 
again? '' but rather, " If a man die, does he deserve to live I' 
again ? " The supreme personal question is not, " Am I im- > 
mortal ? " but " Am I worthy of true immortality ? " Have ' 
I achieved in myself that which is of sufficient value to the 
universe to justify immortality for me? Am I sufficiently 
" real," in the sense that my life in its inner consciousness has 
blended and become one with the God who is Justice and 
Truth, Goodness and Love? Is my personality sufficiently 
developed in the True, the Beautiful, the Good, so that it does 
not fear the death of the body, whenever that may take place ? 
Am I so at one with the " eternal verities " that death can 
have no power over me ? 

In Ibsen's drama, '^ Peer Gynt,'' the theme is the same we 
have been considering : What is it to be one's self ? What is , 
it to find one's self? What is it that gives real worth and 
value to one's personality ? As, step by step, we follow this 
capricious creature through all his kaleidoscopic career, we 
see him in all his deep-seated selfishness, his cynical indiffer- 
ence to higher things, his superstitious and often revolting re- 
ligion, his insincerity, his compromise, his treachery, his de- 
ceitfulness, his lust. More than once he catches a vision of 
something higher and better, nobler and purer; but his bet- 



162 THE NEW LIGHT OlST IMMORTALITY 

ter self turns away from the vision and submits itself again 
to degradation as lie continues his downward course. ]!^ear 
the close of the drama he meets the button-molder with his 
large casting ladle. Lie insists that he must have the soul of 
Peer Gynt to melt in his ladle, in order to make of the raw 
material new and better souls. Peer Gynt resists this de- 
struction of himself with all his might. He tries to show the 
button molder that he has always been his true self. But, 
little by little, the button molder shows him that not only 
God's Peer Gynt but even the devil's Peer Gynt as well, has 
been washed out of existence. There has ceased to be any- 
thing decisive or individual even in his sins, and so he must 
go into the melting pot. At last he begins to see that he is 
indeed no one, and this very recognition is the first step on 
a better way. But he begs for a little respite, just a short 
time in which to discover somewhere, if possible, his lost self. 
The button-molder finally consents, adding, ^' E'evertheless, 
we'll meet at the next cross-roads, Peer Gynt." As he pro- 
ceeds on his search, Peer Gynt at last meets Solvejg, the one 
woman who has truly loved the real self in him all these years, 
and who has been waiting in confidence for his ultimate re- 
turn. And he cries out to her : " Can you tell me where 
Peer Gynt has been since we parted? Where has he been 
with the mark of his destiny on his brow ? Been as he sprang 
from God's thought? Where have I been as my self? 
Whole and true ? Where have I been with God's stamp on 
my brow ? " And Solvejg replies softly, and smiling, '^ In 
my faith, in my hope and in my love." 

In the light of modern philosophy and science, entirely 
apart now from the significance of psychic research, and also 
in the more reasonable faith of religion to-day, our chief con- 
cern should not be whether we are to carry merely self-con- 
sciousness through the shadows of death, but rather, what de- 
gree of self -consciousness will we take with us when we leave 



THE EEAL IMMORTALITY 163 

these familiar scenes ? Shall it be the clear consciousness of 
the full-fledged and symmetrical personality who knows him- 
self to be one with the eternal verities of the universe, or shall 
it be the faint consciousness of one who has only begun to take 
the first faltering steps in the direction of true manhood and 
womanhood? The greatest thing in the universe, next to 
God, is human life, and the greatest thing in human life is the 
fully developed personality, and the developed personality is 
one in whom the moral and spiritual values of life have at- 
tained the supremacy — in whom the divine and the human 
are blended in conscious unity. 



CHAPTEK XII 

THE CONSCIOUSlSrESS OF IMMORTALITY 

" It is my faith that God is our own dream 
Of perfect understanding of the soul. 
It is my passion that, alike through me 
And every member of Eternity, 
The source of God is sending the same stream. 
It is my peace that when my life is whole, 
God's life shall be completed and supreme." 

— Witter Bynner. 

SciEiN^CE reveals clearly the climatic changes that have 
taken place on our planet. We read that bleak and dreary 
Labrador was once a tropical realm, a wilderness of fruits 
and flowers, while the region of the Amazon, now luxuriantly 
fertile, was once the home of the iceberg. But there came the 
time when some disturbance gave our earth a new inclination 
toward the sun, and the land that had never known frost be- 
came covered with ice and snow, while the Amazon passed 
into the warmth of perpetual summer. This striking change 
that has taken place in the physical world may well illustrate 
the marked change of attitude that has taken place in man^s 
relation to the experience of death, so that now summer reigns 
where once winter ruled. 

The older philosophy that pictured death as a " Monster 
with hideous mien," is either wholly dead or else dying. The 
philosophies of idealism all enunciate confidently some kind 
of immortality for man, and the still later philosophy of now 
realism implies at least a real immortality, in just so far as 
man brings his life into harmony with the ^^ eternal verities '* 

164 



C0]^SCI0US:N^ESS of IMMOHTALITY 165 

of the universe. The science that was once so generally ma- 
terialistic and sought to clip the wings of faith is now, through 
many of its foremost representatives, learning itself to soar 
into supra-sensible realms. E'othing can be more significant 
than the fact that to-day it is science and philosophy, not re- 
ligion, that are leading the way in the study and investigation 
of the meaning of death and immortality. 

Immanuel Kant, that master mind of the eighteenth cen- 
tury, once said : '^ At some future day it will be proved — I 
cannot say when or where — that the human soul is, while in 
earth life, already in an uninterrupted communication with 
those living in another world; that the human soul can act 
upon those beings, and receive in return impressions of them 
without being conscious of it in the ordinary personality." 
As we contemplate the work that is being done by modem 
psychic research, it would almost seem as if Kant's prediction 
were on the point of being fulfilled in our own day. If it 
seems that the multitudes of those now living on the earth 
were still standing in the valley of shadows, straining their 
eyes to see and their ears to hear, it is well to remember that 
to-day, as never before in human history, it is the valley of 
expectancy and hope. While to many of us there may be as 
yet only silence and uncertainty, still the very silence is por- 
tentous ; it is a whispering, breathing silence ; there is a catch- 
ing of the breath, a faint tremulous movement that may but 
precede the clear, full song of assurance. 

But in spite of the fact that all religions have taught some 
form of belief in immortality, that Christianity has made the 
resurrection from the dead one of the cardinal articles of its 
creeds, and that it can be said that in a nominal sense most 
men believe in immortality, still the fear of death lingers in 
countless minds, and the dark clouds of sorrow hang heavy 
over multitudes of lives — never so heavy or so extensive as 
to-day — and when the hour of bereavement comes, our prch 



166 THE l^EW LIGHT O^ IMMORTALITY 

fessed beliefs seldom stand tlie test, and we are left in con-_ 
fusion of mind and darkness of soul. Thougli religion has 
thus taught, and philosophy has made reasonable, and psy- 
chic research is actually claiming to have discovered the evi- 
dence for the soul's immortality, still there are many who 
either secretly doubt or else frankly disavow all belief in im- 
mortality. In every audience of men and women, whatever 
arguments may be used or whatever evidence may be adduced, 
a certain percentage will go out believing, but it is safe to as- 
sume that the majority will go out practically to doubt the 
soul's continuance after death. Experience teaches conclu- 
sively that you can never convince another of the truth of im- 

~mortality, any more than you can of the existence of God, by 

^mere intellectual argiunents or by any amount of external evi- 
dence. The reality, whether of God or of immortality, must 
be perceived withinj that is to say, it must be personally ex- 
perienced^ if it is to hold a vital place in one's life and 

"thought. The reason that the so-called universal belief in im- 
mortality has not yet conquered the fear of death, or Ban- 

; ished sorrow in its deepest aspects from the world, is because, 
like so many other beliefs, it is merely nominal and has not 
incorporated itself among the actual verities of man's inner 
consciousness. Perhaps the belief will never thus become 
vital until the fact of survival is proven to be true ; but it is 
safe to say that even if the world possessed the scientific proof 

, of survival, the great mass of people might yet be very far 
from realizing either the truth or the meaning of immortality 
in their daily lives. 

The great word in religion to-day is no longer belief, but 
realizatio7i. This is always true, as religion passes from the 
merely intellectual stage to the spiritual stage, and thus be- 
comes experiential. A belief may be merely the intellectual 
acceptance of a certain statement or definition of some truth^ 
;^hereas to realize that truth means to perceive the truth as a 



^ 



CO^SCIOUSI^ESS OF IMMOETALITY 16Y 

reality in one's own inner consciousness. It is one thing to 
elievelii God; it is qnite a different thing to realize God, as 
the self of onr selves, the sonl of oni:; souls, the life of our 
lives. It is one thing to believe iE( the ideals and principles 
of Jesus ; it is a vastly different thing to realize those ideals in 
one's inner personal life first of all, and then translate those 
principles daily into thought and word and deed. So it is one 
thing to believe in the soul's immortality, while it is a very 
different thing to realize the truth of immortality in such a 
way as to live every day in the clear, glad consciousness that 
we are immortal beings here and now, and that death can 
never touch the real self at all. 

Far too long has religion lain imbedded in Bibles and em- 
balmed in creeds. The most hopeful sign for religion to-day 
is the determination on the part of a steadily increasing num- 
ber of people everywhere, to take the real truth of religion out 
of Bible and creed, out of sermon and belief, and persistently 
seek to realize its meaning and power in the actual experi- 
ences of daily life. The only vital religion after all is the 
realized religion, and the only belief that is worthy the name 
is the belief that, through actual inner experience, has be- 
come incorporated in one's deepest personal consciousness. 
It is the actual experience within of the truth of one's own 
being that alone can translate the mere belief in immortality 
into its actual realization. For centuries the church has 
taught that men ought to believe in immortality because of the 
truth of the resurrection of Jesus. As a matter of fact, this 
is to reverse the process. If we believe in the rising of the 
spiritual Jesus out of his body, in any real sense, it is because 
first of all, we believe in immortality, that is, that we our- 
selves are, in our essential beings, immortal. 

Professor Elmer T. Gates, of the Smithsonian Institution, 
has gone as far in his study of the human consciousness as any 
of the newer psychologists. He has not yet seen fit to pub- 



168 THE NEW LIGHT OlST IMMORTALITY 

lisli tlie results of all his most interesting investigations^ but 
the scholars who have been permitted to read his manuscripts, 
all agree that he is one of the most original and remarkable 
men of this age. Professor McGee says : " His work will 
revolutionize education and lead tO' greater intellectual prog- 
ress in the next quarter of a century than has been achieved 
in all the centuries before." This is not the place to give the 
processes by which Professor Gates has arrived at his startling 
conclusions; we desire but briefly to summarize his thought as 
it applies especially to the actual realization of immortality 
in consciousness here upon this earth. 

He finds life, mind and consciousness immanent in the uni- 
verse. Life, mind and consciousness, as they find expression 
in the human individual, could not have arisen in man, were 
they not inherent properties of the Eternal Energy whence all 
things proceed, or God. The Cosmic Consciousness, he ar- 
gues, must have a nature more fundamental than our own 
limited individual experience, and it is from this Cosmic Con- 
sciousness that there wells up into our individual conscious- 
ness the feeling-insights, or intuitions. Thus man's intui- 
tion, or instinct for immortality, proceeds fro^m the Cosmic 
Consciousness, which must know the truth. Professor Gates 
asks the flirther question : "Can consciousness directly knowi 
any truth about existence which the mind has not inductively! 
experienced beforehand ? '' He answers in the afiirmative. 
" I have never, for example, found by experience that there is.| 
not a boundary to space, but my consciousness tells me that! 
there can be no such boundary. I have had no personal proof] 
that duration in time was without beginning, and yet my con- 
sciousness tells me that duration must be without beginning or I 
end. I cannot prove it, yet my consciousness tells me thatj 
the same truths that are now true, did not at any remote timel 
first begin to be true ; truth is eternal. And in somewhat the 
same way, my consciousness seems to know that it will survive i 



CONSCIOUSNESS OF IMMOETALITY 169 

the death of my body; and I give it the same credence as I 
give to its cognitions about space, duration, motion and 
truth." And then he adds these significant words: " I can- 
not evade the conviction, based on my own experience, that all 
persons may, by proper training, get that kind of sMll in con- 
sciousing which will enable them to find in their own con- 
sciousness the same evidence for immortality which I have 
found, and those who do so find it will indeed have a price- 
less possession." 

But note : ^' By proper training all persons can get that 
shill in consciousing . . ." He is not referring here to any 
scientific evidence obtained through psychic research, but to 
an inner realization in consciousness of the truth of immor- 
tality. Is this not the reason why so few have entered into 
the realization of their own immortality here and now ? The 
simple consciousness of the child should lead on naturally to 
the self -consciousness of the adolescent. This, in turn, should 
develop into the clear and intelligent consciousness of the self 
— the " I am," that stands behind all thinking, feeling and 
willing, and can control and direct them all as it chooses. 
But this is not the end of the unfolding of consciousness. All 
the great spiritual teachers of the race have taught that really 
to know the true self, as the divine principle within one's very 
being, would be to realize here and now the truth of immortal- 
ity. And to-day one of our foremost psychologists tells us 
the same thing, when he suggests the further development of 
self -consciousness into cosmic consciousness, where the realiza- 
tion of God and of immortality becomes possible for every in- 
dividual who " by training " learns the supremest secret of 
life — how to extend the boundaries of the inner conscious- 
ness by '^ skill in consciousing." This is what Bergson means 
when he says that " through intuition it is possible to dis- 
cover the meaning of life, the very nature of existence." 

Professor Gates tells us that he ^^ finds no chasm to be 



170 THE NEW LIGHT O'N IMMOETALITY 

bridged between the self and the not-self ; the individual self 
is part of the Total Self ; you trace your pedigree back to the 
beginningiess Totality — the All ; you have the Universehood 
in you ; whatever God is, that thou art also/' 

It is not a preacher of religion, but a psychologist who 
makes this tremendous statement, " Whatever God is, that 
thou art also." Do we realize the deep significance of these 
words? For centuries religion has said to man, you must 
believe, and then has anatnematized all men who did not or 
could not accept the beliefs set forth by the churches. Has 
not the time now come when the message of religion to men 
shall no longer be, " Believe, on the authority of some institu- 
tion or some book,'' but rather, ^' You may hnow, it is possible 
for you to realize in your own inner consciousne'SS the truth of 
God, of the soul, of freedom and of immortality " ? If the 
representatives of religion, possessed themselves of the knowl- 
edge, should be able to instruct men and women in the true 
method of self-realization, in the actual experience of the 
truth, would not the religion of the twentieth century yet 
come to fulfill, as it never has done in the past, its true func- 
tion in the life of humanity ? It is for such a realization of 
the truth that the world expectantly waits to-day. 

In every age and clime there have always been the great in- 
dividual souls who have found this innel* path to truth and 
life, for whom all fears of death have vanished, since they 
have discovered the secret of existence in the clear conscious- 
ness of the eternity of life and the permanence of all that is 
indeed of real value and w^orth. With the new light dawning 
to-day, there is an ever increasing number of men and wo^men 
who, through their skill in consciousing, have attained to such 
a realization of their true selves, as being indeed one with 
God, that they have reached the plane of spiritual or cosmic 
consciousness and are living their lives continually in God, 
free from the bondage to fears of every kind. 



CO^SCIOUSl^ESS OF IMMORTALITY 171 

To quote one more proplietic utterance from Professor 
Gates : ^' Amongst the devotees of every religion, and the peo- 
ples of every race, nation and country we find the best minds 
looking to science for the solution of their problems, and we 
have thus before us a world-movement and the basis for a 
world-federation. To get more mind and learn how to use it 
in discovering and applying truth is the basis of an active 
Universal Brotherhood. This great world-movement, as yet 
unorganized, is in the air; it is the true Zeit-Geist of the 
time; and it inaugurates a millennial cycle for humanity. 
This movement cannot be led by any one person or body of 
people, as most religious movements have been ; it accepts for 
its creed and character and leader nothing less than the total 
ever-growing body of inductive scientific knowledge — the 
Revelation of Science ; and its method will be the art of using 
the mind as that art may hereafter be developed. This will 
put the control of the world into the hands, or rather into 
the brains, of the best minds of each class and community.- 
And when once a more highly developed science and art shall 
have been applied to the scientific begetting and rearing of 
children, and to their early education; and when a race of 
more normal people shall, by means of a perfected mentative 
art and with an extended scientific knowledge, have been ap- 
plied to a systematic ascertainment and application of truth, 
carried on as a religious mission, then we may expect that a 
rapidly increasing knowledge of the Universe — a synthetic 
science — will lead to the solution of the various problems 
that now perplex us — and among them, the problems of God, 
Freedom and Immortality. We may anticipate the gradual 
obliteration of war, disease and crime. Following this re- 
cent extraordinary intellectual development will be a period 
of corresponding emotive development, in which Humanity 
will learn to appreciate the utilities, beauties and opportuni- 
ties of existence. 



172 THE NEW LIGHT ON IMMORTALITY 

" Why all this about the progress of science and the ex- 
traordinary world-movement that is revolutionizing human 
ity? Because I wish to emphasize one important point, 
namely, that there is that in the Universe which has suc- 
ceeded, and is succeeding and will continue to succeed ; it has 
produced worlds and peopled them with evolving life; it has 
revealed to us a body of actual knowledge; in the very fact 
that evolution has taken place, it shows the triumph of good 
over evil, the victory of knowledge over ignorance — of pleas- 
ure over pain. And that which has succeeded is Mind, or 
consciousness ; and Mind is part of the universe, is immanent 
in it, has the eternal nature expressed in it; and you and I 
have inherited that nature, and are possessed by the spirit, 
meaning and promise of that greatest mystery of existence — 
consciousness. And by means of Mind all possibilities are 
open to us ; and when we study its nature we are studying the 
nature of the Supreme Mind, and are directly conscious of 
that which has been eternally regnant in Cosmos. Whatever 
problems are solved by the future, will be solved by con- 
sciousness, whether these problems relate to the objective or 
the subjective world. All possibilities are opened to con- 
sciousness, and the possibilities of the Universe are infinite; 
and among these possibilities, as I hope I have shown, are 
those of an endless progressive existence in a Universe at 
whose head is an infinite Mind, of which we are functional 
parts." 

When the time comes that this new and higher race, to 
which Professor Gates refers, shall make its appearance upon 
this planet, or when a new and more truly spiritual con- 
sciousness shall be awakened in the race that now is, then 
indeed it may come to pass that all our present laborious 
efforts to find evidence for the truth of immortality will seem 
to be of infinitesimal importance, since man will then pos- 
sess in his own inner experience the realization that he is an 



COISTSCIOUSlSrESS OF IMMORTALITY 173 

inseparable part of the Infinite Life of the Universe, that it 
is not quantity of years but quality of life that really matters, 
and that all that is truly valuable in him is eternal. What is 
now the experience of the few, will then be the knowledge of 
all. 

Our idealist sculptor, Lorado Taft, has planned a great 
sculptural group which is eventually to have its place in 
Washington Park, Chicago. His Fountain of Time will rep- 
resent the heroic figure of Time overlooking the vast, hurry- 
ing procession of mankind. Out of the central jet of water 
rise infant forms, who turn their childish footsteps after the 
youths and maidens that have preceded them. In the center 
of the long column are warriors and horsemen, strong men and 
beautiful women, all marching forward with kindling eyes 
and heads erect. Beyond them are the bending shoulders and 
halting footsteps of the aged who are just about to sink back to 
the earth from whence they came. But all, all — the chil- 
dren, the youths, the heroes and the grandsires, every one — 
are gazing forward intently toward some goal they cannot see. 
This vision of the Unseen it is that keeps them marching on. 

It is not the brief cycle of the body, dust to dust, but this 
wonderful suggestion of the soul's luminous vision, that will 
make Lorado Taft's Fountain a work of prophetic and artistic 
genius when it is finally embodied in the imperishable marble. 
It is not the dust, rising like transient foam and falling like 
vanishing spray, but the Spirit in man that endures as seeing 
that which is invisible ; man the unconquerable, man the im- 
perishable, man the eternal explorer, who afiirms confidently 
— I know that Life is evermoTe the Master of death. 

" Time goes, you say ; ah, no. 
Thank God, time stays ; we go." 

We recall how Peter Pan remarked naively as the waters 
of the lagoon crept up his little rock and threatened to sweep 



174 THE NEW LIGHT O^ IMMORTALITY 

him away, " To die will be an awfully big adventure." It 
was natural that these words should come spontaneously to the 
lips of Charles Frohman, the best friend of Peter Pan, on that 
fateful May afternoon when he stood calmly on the sinking 
deck of the doomed Lusitania. '^ Why fear death ? " he said 
to the friend who stood beside him ; ^' it is the most beautiful 
adventure of life.'' 

If this could be our attitude, if we could accustom our- 
selves to think of death, not as the enemy who takes us out of 
life, but as one of the great, perhaps the greatest, adventures 
in life — an adventure that must help to further dispel life's 
mysteries as we know them here, and solve life's deepest prob- 
lems, then indeed it would be possible for us all to 

" Greet the Unseen with a cheer." 



THE EJ?"D 



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